🗣️ "The Resilience of Navajo Nation"

Host: Emma Robbins
Guest: Crystal Tulley-Cordova | Principal Hydrologist | Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources
Category: 🗣️ Opinion

Podcast’s Essential Bites:

[7:47] “Some of the challenges that we have within the Navajo Nation are related to the technical capacity to be able to do the work and also the resources needing to do it. So the Navajo Nation spans over 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. And when you consider the size, it's similar in size to West Virginia, or […] Ireland. And when you begin to think of a place that big and you begin to think about spanning over multiple states and spanning across different watersheds, especially in the West, where water is a limited resource, it becomes a challenge associated with the limited capacity and resources that we have.”

[8:38] “Through partnerships, we're able to better access opportunities and address these challenges. We do have some legacy challenges associated with past uranium mining and through partnerships there are cleanup efforts to be able to address that. In addition to that we have challenges associated with brackish water, so [...] really salty water in some of the southwestern western parts of the Navajo Nation.”

[9:42] “We have a high population of residents within the Navajo Nation that don't have pipe water. And it's important when you're experiencing a pandemic to be able to have water especially when there are recommendations given to be able to mitigate COVID-19 challenges by being able to wash surfaces more often or washing our hands more often. And when you begin to think of water haulers who have limited water available for their uses, […] then you begin to understand some of the challenges that we within the Navajo nation have. […] In addition to that we have some challenges associated with unresolved water rights.”

[15:38] “[Since] we have a high number of people that don't have running water, […] our priority is to get water to the people. But we are also equally concerned about having greater understanding about our water characteristics, whether that be above the surface or below the surface.”

Rating: 💧💧

🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify | Google
🕰️ 26 min | 🗓️ 07/02/2022
✅ Time saved: 24 min

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