SOURCE® Hydropanels® bring water to the Navajo Nation

While the Navajo Nation has introduced a number of policy initiatives to address this issue, gaps remain in the ability of the existing solutions to address the challenges listed above. This is evidenced through the funding and use of interim supplies of safe drinking water such as bottled water and hauled water which provide near term relief but fall short of stated policy goals as it relates to accessibility, resilience and sustainability. Navajo population need access to secure drinking water without the need to travel to attain it.

According to the EPA, unregulated drinking water sources are the greatest public health risk on the Navajo Nation. The erosion of access and trust in drinking water also drives residents to high-sugar beverages that are more available and affordable than water alternatives, which has a strong link to increased levels of diabetes. And to top it off, many of the Navajo homes have no electricity or drinking water so the Navajo Nation now has the highest per capita COVID-19 infection rate in the U.S.

In partnership with Navajo Power, a public benefit corporation, and local Navajo governments SOURCE installed 32 Hydropanels in 15 Navajo homes funded by Barclay’s and The Unreasonable Group. And this month SOURCE will finish the installation of 32 more through a partnership with Johns Hopkins University’s Center for American Indian Health.

“As a community and as a Nation, we have to embrace technology, and I’m grateful for this project, because these folks have drinking water, every day. It’s needed. It’s needed all over the Reservation.”
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Jerry Williams, Past Lechee Chapter President