ASU project to expand clean water access for Navajo Nation

CDC Foundation funds new project to build water-loading stations as part of COVID-19 response efforts

Access to clean water is a dire challenge for one third of the world’s population, including people living in the southwestern United States. Approximately 20% of households in the Navajo Nation lack indoor plumbing, meaning thousands of residents haul water in tanks they fill from a mixture of regulated and unregulated sources. The latter are susceptible to contamination and therefore pose a threat to human health, so more safe water sites are desperately needed.

Toward that end, the CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit that supports the work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has awarded $1.8 million through the Arizona State University Foundation to Construction in Indian Country, or CIIC, which is part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU. The funds will be used to install new permanent water loading stations across the Navajo Nation as part of COVID-19 response efforts.