Water is life on the Navajo Nation

Norm Noble

The Sun Lakes Rotary Club has received a Rotary Foundation Global “Humanitarian” Water Grant to provide homes on the Navajo Nation with inside running tap water. Many of these people, our neighbors, presently have their water delivered weekly by a water truck into above-ground, 50-gallon holding barrels in their yards. These 50 gallons must last each family for a week. Do you have any idea how long 50 gallons of water lasts in a normal Phoenix home? Estimates vary, but each person uses about 80 to 100 gallons of water per day. That includes showering, flushing toilets and drinking. In other words, a Phoenician family of four consumes up to 2,800 gallons of water a week.

For Navajo families, these 50 gallons are used for laundry, bathing, cooking and drinking. Do the math. For a family of four, that’s a little over 12 gallons of water a piece for the week.

If you’re born Navajo, you’re 67 times more likely not to have a water tap or toilet in your house than if you’re born black, white, Asian or Hispanic-American. These are the people the Sun Lakes Rotary Club is trying to help.

The Sun Lakes Rotary Club’s goal is to install underground cisterns which pump running water into 25 homes at a cost of $4,500 per home. The homes are located within a 70-mile radius of Thoreau, New Mexico.

Once the funding goal of $112,500 has been reached, the Sun Lakes Rotary Club will work with DigDeep (a non-profit based in Los Angeles) which will supply the total water system and on-site installation at each home. The water filtration systems consist of a 1,200 gallon in-ground cistern, electric pump, sink, solar panel, battery, filter, heater and gray water leach field. DigDeep can provide and install up to two homes per week.

This is your chance to help make a difference! The Sun Lakes Rotary Club is seeking private donations from folks like you to join with Rotary Club partners in Arizona and internationally and The Rotary Foundation to raise funds to complete this grant. We are reaching out to every Sun Lakes resident to help. If you are interested in participating, please send your tax-free donation to: Sun Lakes Rotary Foundation 2000 Navajo Water Project, 4980 S. Alma School Road, Suite A2 #419, Chandler, AZ 85248.

Together we can help fix this!

The Sun Lakes Rotary Foundation 2000 is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt foundation. Our IRS Tax Identification Number is 86-0947391.

For more information about this important project, look at www.sunlakesrotary.com as well as the Sun Lakes Rotary Club Facebook page. If it’s easier, call John McKoy at 480-895-0489.