Many Navajo Nation Residents Still Living in the Dark
Image courtesy of Don Graham courtesy of Flickr under creative commons license, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.
I just read a very interesting article from my friends at T&D World that illuminates how a decent percentage of Navajo Nation residents live without electricity. This caught my attention, as it is shocking to me that this can be true in the year 2022. Luckily, thanks to many helping hands, some progress is being made rectify this situation.
Why are there Navajo Nation Residents Living without Power?
This is the first question that popped into my mind when I read the T&D World article. Navajo Nation is a 27,000-square-mile Native American territory located in parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Over 250,000 people call this territory their home.
The territory does have its own utility authority (Navajo Utility Authority or NTUA), which was launched in 1959 and is responsible for providing energy and water to its residents. Unfortunately, although the NTUA has facilitated the provision of utility services to most Navajo Nation residents, those living in the most remote regions remain off the grid. The reason? Lack of funding.
While the exact number of off-grid residents is unclear, as of 15 years ago there were 18,000 residents with no utility services. At the time, there were an estimated 24,000 U.S. residents with no access to utility services, meaning that Navajo Nation represented a whopping 75% of the total.
NTUA has made progress since then, but it hasn’t been enough. The good news is that the NTUA is finally getting some much-needed help to finish the job. Through a program created by the American Public Power Association (APPA), 10 utilities across 11 states have stepped up to the plate. Each one will be sending up to 4 crews to assist in the connection efforts, with the goal to connect 300 households to the grid that have never been able to enjoy electricity in the past.
In the final analysis, it’s shocking that there are people in this country that have never been able to enjoy the conveniences of electricity and other utility services. Luckily, thanks to many ongoing initiatives, the percentage of Navajo Nation residents living off the grid will eventually approach zero.
