Lack of reliable water looming issue for American tribes.
President Biden’s infrastructure bill, passed over a month ago, allotted $3.5 billion of its $1.2 trillion to the Indian Health Service. In the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in the U.S., over a third of residents do not have access to running water. In communities like the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon, residents pick up 600 gallons of packaged water per day, most of it donated, from community storage.
“If you came to work one day and someone said, ‘Hey, you need to go and find water for a community of 6,000 people.’ … I mean, where do you start?’” said Dan Martinez, emergency manager for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, who expects to receive federal funds to replace underground pipes and address the 40-year-old treatment plant. “The infrastructure bill brought joy to my heart because now it gives me hope — hope that it’s going to be repaired,”
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For leaders of Tribal communities as they work with federal agencies to repair infrastructure and water supplies.
- That the money given to build and repair water infrastructure would create jobs and stabilize households.
- For the president and his administration as they oversee the implementation of this facet of the infrastructure bill.
Sources: AP, Newsweek
