A Community Science Approach to Assessing Drinking Water in Three Navajo Nation Communities

This presentation will focus on how our team worked with three Navajo communities during May 2022-August 2022 on a community science project. Involving the communities in community science is an important way to address environmental issues and build local capacity. This project aims to empower local community members and youth by training them in water quality sampling, water testing methods, and data interpretation. With help from the community mentors and AGU Thriving Earth project scientists, youth began the work in May. The team participated in 1-2 meetings a month and were guided though a learning opportunity and communicated results to the broader community to encourage informed decisions about where to access drinking water. The long-term goal of this project is to empower Navajo communities: young citizen scientists will know how to test their water and effectively convey the results, and community members will have the knowledge to promote healthy lifestyles and make the best decisions for their families. Should this project be successful, the model could be sustained and replicated across the Navajo Nation. The Four Corners region of the Navajo Nation has been actively engaged in promoting water access and consumption for the past few years, but distrust in water quality persists. The Notah Begay III Foundation (NB3F) "Water First!" community learning group identified barriers leading to children choosing sugar sweetened beverages instead of water and recommended community initiatives including setting up infused water stations and 30-day water challenges. These efforts to promote water consumption have been hampered by concerns about water quality.

The three regions of the Navajo Nation leading this project represent a population of about 3000 people, spread across the Four Corners Region of the high desert Colorado Plateau. An estimated 30% of people on the Navajo Nation lack access to running water, but even for those who do, concerns remain about the safety of their water. Since communities are rural, it is common for families to haul water to their homes in large containers in the back of trucks or on trailers. This project will support autonomous monitoring of water quality; it's vital that the community feel confident in the quality of available drinking water as water is life.