The documentary, “Working Together for a Better Future,” highlights the efforts of the Water Access Coordination Group (WACG) to provide water services to the Navajo Nation. Created in April 2020, WACG is a coalition of 20 entities led by the Navajo Nation and the Indian Health Service that supports collaboration with the Navajo Nation to address the lack of access to water, a pressing need during the covid-19 pandemic.
The 23-minute video offers interviews with coalition participants and depicts the quick mobilization and emergency response deployed to bring safe water to the Navajo Nation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WACG launched efforts to deliver portable handwashing stations to 500 Navajo families in need. In addition, the Indian Health Service used funding from the CARES Act to install 59 watering points on the Navajo reservation and distributed 37,000 storage containers with 3.5 million water disinfection tablets for people to haul safe water to their homes.
While most of those efforts are transitional, long-term solutions have been sought out. Large water cisterns have been placed underground for residents to pump and receive fresh running water in their bathrooms and kitchens, and new septic tanks have been connected by the Navajo Engineering and Construction Authority.
The video was funded by the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the UArizona.
