Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) is the largest tribal multi-utility provider in the U.S. It operates 11 external watering stations for residents to haul water, charging $5 for up to 1,000 gallons. But for those who have to purchase water elsewhere or rely on bottled water, it can cost $1.50 a gallon. A study looking at water issues in Navajo Nation, funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, found Navajo households without running water paid 71 times the amount that water users in typical urban areas paid.
George McGraw is the founder of DigDeep, a nonprofit focused on water access issues. He said the Navajo Nation isn't alone: Over 2 million Americans across all 50 states don't have any running water or a flush toilet at home, but Native Americans have trouble accessing water more than any other group.
The United States built one of the world's most successful water and sanitation systems, with the New Deal expanding the development to include rural areas in the 1930s. Still, McGraw said that system was never designed to serve everybody. "If you were poor or a community of color, you were deliberately sidelined out of the infrastructural development built to serve the rest of the country."
A study by DigDeep and US Water Alliance, "Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States," identified race as the strongest predictor of access to running water as an American in 2020. It found African American and Latinx households were nearly twice as likely to lack complete plumbing compared to white families, while Native American households were 19 times more likely. The study found race was a more significant factor than income and geography.
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