DigDeep (USA)

The issue:

Approximately 30% of households on the Navajo Nation are living without safe water and sanitation. Many homes and communities are too far from major water lines, making plumbing water to individual homes prohibitively expensive. Families rely on purchasing bottled water or hauling water, often from dangerous or unregulated sources, such as agricultural and livestock wells, which can be contaminated with bacteria, uranium and arsenic, contributing to chronic disease.

The project: 

DigDeep’s community-led projects bring clean, hot and cold running water into American homes. They also invest in research, advocacy, and workforce development to close the Water Access Gap once and for all.

DigDeep’s Navajo Water Project is an Indigenous-led, community-managed utility alternative that brings hot and cold running water to homes without working taps and toilets. In 2018, the Navajo Water Project won the US Water Prize and has connected thousands of people to clean, running water across the Navajo Nation, which spans 27,000 square miles crossing New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

Croda Foundation has awarded DigDeep’s Navajo Water Project £100,000 over 12 months to install 11 Home Water Systems, benefitting approximately 33 people on the Navajo Nation. The Home Water System is an off-grid solution designed for homes that are too remote to be connected to municipal water lines. It features a 1,200-gallon water tank, sink, water heater, filter, expansion tank, pressure gauge, drain line, leach field and, optionally, solar power and lights. The systems are filled monthly by a network of locally-managed water trucks that transport safe drinking water to the home.

To learn more about DigDeep, visit its website