"A new water-purification system using solar power to purify contaminated groundwater holds promise for solving water problems not only on the Navajo Nation, where it is being tested, but for many other indigenous communities as well."
"Scientists from the University of Arizona and the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation are working on a project innovative enough to have inspired a documentary, in fact. Its goal is to provide cheap, off-the-grid water for communities that do not have access to any.
Although many in the U.S. take clean water for granted and consider it a basic human need, 40 percent of the population on some parts of the Navajo Nation does not have access to potable water. That doesn’t just mean drinking water. It’s not even good enough to bathe in, wash dishes, irrigate a vegetable garden or quench the thirst of livestock. Some of the water issues are rooted in the natural geology of the 24,000 square miles spanning three states that is home to more than 175,000 Navajos on the largest reservation-based native nation in the U.S."
Lee Allen reports for Indian Country Today Media Network July 8, 2012.
