Navajo Pilot Program

Global Access was honored to spend four days with families on the Navajo Nation to begin our pilot program and get first hand understanding of the challenges this absolutely stunning landscape holds.

Dig Deep sponsored our collaborative pilot program.  The Forgotten People, a grass roots nonprofit, and Water Resources Action Project, a New Mexico based nonprofit, invited Global Access to collaborate on this project in a remote area of the United States where thousands of Diné (Navajo) and Hopi households haul water from distant wells. This project is a two part pilot program coordinating installation of innovative rainwater collection systems designed in Israel and our point-of-use water filters.

We were immediately stuck by the vastness as we set out on three and a half hour drive from when we first entered the Navajo Nation to our host’s home. After navigating countless miles of washboard roads and offroad trails through the rolling hills, past abandoned mine sites, we arrived to set up camp. We were near the center of the Navajo Nation situated a half hour from the gas station, an hour from the community water source, and three hours from a typical grocery store.

The following days we led water workshops and visited homes to get a better understanding of the concerns of families—clear water is not always safe water. There is fear of arsenic and uranium in ground water in addition to bacteria and protozoa that develop in water storage. Our collaborative program to evaluate water quality from its source to point-of-use is needed to establish absolute trust in drinking water. Together, we will change this.

Thank you to everyone we met for welcoming us into your homes and sharing stories over home cooked meals.