鈥淲ash your hands鈥 and 鈥渟tay home鈥 have been the biggest public-health directives of the novel coronavirus pandemic. But what if you can鈥檛? What if you have to leave home to draw water from a public tap that鈥檚 hours away听just to have enough to drink and cook with? Or if you鈥檙e trying to draw from a well that鈥檚 drying up from overuse and climate change听and might also be tainted ?
That鈥檚 the reality across much of the Navajo Nation, according to Cindy Howe, a project manager for the ,听which brings wells, water trucks, and plumbing to the reservation. The pandemic has hit听the Navajo Nation, which covers a 25,000-square-mile swath of the Four Corners region of the Southwest,听: by May 24, there were 4,658 reported cases and 165听deaths in a population of 173,000, the highest known infection rate anywhere in the country, including New York City.听
The Navajo Nation is particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus because it lacks sufficient听resources and infrastructure that most of the U.S. takes for granted: roads, electricity, internet to help spread public-health information, and听hospitals. The crisis has been听exacerbated by tight living quarters, and there are听 of health issues, like asthma, cancer,听and cardiovascular disease, among residents. All of those problems听are tied on some level to federal neglect or exclusion from resources听and stalled or missing funding.听Most recently,听$600 million in 听was听delayed by more than a month; the money finally arrived in early May.听
In the Navajo Nation, access to water is a big piece of both the COVID-19 crisis and long-standing听historical injustice. More than a third of the population doesn鈥檛 have access to running water, thanks to a combination of American water management that doesn鈥檛 respect tribal water rights听and a widespread lack of the infrastructure necessary to bring water to everyone on the reservation. The average American uses , but some on the Navajo Nation get by on just two or three gallons a day for eating, cooking, and cleaning. As the coronavirus spreads through their lands, the need for clean water鈥攁lways a matter of life or death鈥攈as become even more life-threatening.
Currently, nonprofits and volunteers are distributing water to help residents access enough听and to encourage听social distancing. Howe says they鈥檝e received hundreds of thousands of gallons of donated water, and her organization is coordinating with local fire departments and chapter governments to get it to centralized locations. They鈥檙e targeting senior centers and relying on police departments to听help distribute water and information. But the听coronavirus is still spreading听there, in part because people cannot stay home and self-isolate听when they have to travel听to get water to survive. And听it鈥檚 impossible to sustain crisis-level support forever鈥攄onating bottled water is, of course, a stopgap and not a solution.听
How is it possible that people in America are unable to wash their hands at the same time that people in, say, Phoenix or Los Angeles are filling residential swimming pools? There are two limiting factors when it comes to safe water access: quantity and quality.听The听Navajo lack听both,听mostly due to a legacy of colonialism听that led to decades of complicated legal battles听and the tribal government鈥檚 exclusion from federal and state water projects.听
Since the signing of the Constitution鈥攚hich considers tribes to be sovereign nations鈥攖he U.S. government has made Native tribes walk a tricky line of sovereignty: they exist within the bounds of the country鈥檚 laws and resources in some instances but听independently in others. The听 onto reservations听led to a sustained imbalance听of听power between听the federal government听and tribal nations. That鈥檚 particularly true when it comes to water: treaties promised tribal nations water rights, but the federal government later excluded them from most national negotiations and infrastructure projects that would have made it possible for them to actually access water.听
For instance, the 1908 Winters Doctrine guaranteed federally reserved water rights to tribal nations, including the Navajo. Those rights, the doctrine said, would date back to the founding of their reservations鈥攚hich is important, because in the听western U.S., water rights are given based on 鈥減rior appropriation,鈥 meaning that parties with the oldest rights get their water first. The Navajo Nation,听whose reservation was established in听1868, should be听at the front of the line.
But the Navajo,听along with all of the region鈥檚 other tribes,听were left out of major water-policy negotiations, notably the听 in the 1920s, considered the law of the river in the Southwest.听The tribes say that听was a breach of their treaties, respect for their sovereignty, and the human rights of people on the reservations,听and they鈥檙e fighting with the Bureau of Reclamation to be a part of future negotiations.听Although those rights are technically protected by the federal government, the Navajo have听to battle听for them state by state鈥攁nd they can鈥檛 legally use the water until those cases resolve in their favor. Some cases, like one over water rights to the Little Colorado River, have been in court for听.听
Meanwhile, the water crisis that has听existed a century too long is making the听pandemic within the Navajo鈥檚 borders even more deadly.
It is not an isolated injustice: there are currently听574听federally recognized tribes in the U.S., and as of 2019, only 40 of them have听reached water-rights settlements with the government.听(In 2016, the Indian Health Service estimated that it would cost $2.7 billion to provide water and sanitation infrastructure to all homes on reservations.)听A lack of running water is particularly problematic for people living in the arid Southwest, however鈥攁nd while听the Navajo spent decades in court fighting for听water that听the Winters Doctrine says is already theirs by right,听they and other tribes were left out of public-works projects that watered the rest of the West.听
Through the middle of the 20th century, massive amounts of federal funding went into public water projects, such as the Hoover Dam. But the attitude about spending federal money on big public works has changed in recent years: in 1977, 63 percent of total capital spending for water and wastewater systems came from federal agencies, while that figure is 9听percent today. Across the country, aging infrastructure is way听, and places like the Navajo Nation that were initially left behind听are slipping even further back.听
To make matters even worse, we鈥檝e already听. States and tribal nations alike have been legally promised water at a rate that is logistically impossible, especially now that climate change is听. Even if the Navajo听do finally get all their water rights approved in court, they may not be able to access all of it if there鈥檚 an insufficient supply in the streams or reservoirs that fuel the Southwest鈥檚 water systems.
As the number of coronavirus cases on the reservation continues to grow, the Navajo Nation plans听to allocate the $600 million it 听to address immediate public-health needs while also staving off the scale of future crises by some resources to water infrastructure. People have had to get creative: in some places, that means extending water pipes; in others, it means new听shared wells, bigger storage tanks, or听 for hauling water.听
Of course, it鈥檚 both physically and economically difficult to string a municipal water system across a sparsely populated reservation roughly听the size of West Virginia. It鈥檚 also dangerous to sink wells in an arid area where surface water and aquifers are already depleted from drought and industry, and where the groundwater in some areas has been contaminated by numerous听abandoned uranium mines. But the coronavirus has made it even clearer听that these people听have to try.
The outbreak and death toll on the Navajo Nation have听drawn 听to the much bigger public-health problem that exists听there. That can鈥檛 stop just because the CARES Act money has arrived. 鈥淲e need to get these people hooked up to water lines, no matter the cost,鈥 Howe says.听
Right now, she says,听the Navajo Nation听needs听additional central locations where people can collect听water.听It needs bigger storage tanks. Eventually, everyone on the reservation should have access to running water, even if it鈥檚 hugely expensive, to听proactively prevent devastation that might result from future pandemics. Plus, it was promised to them.
In dry places like the West, equity and the right to life are tied to water. The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the long-standing atrocity of holding tribal nations to different standards than U.S. settlements鈥攁nd of systemically neglecting a human right, the right to water, within American borders.听