The Dilkon Medical Center, a sprawling, $128 million facility on the Navajo Nation in Arizona, was completed a year ago. With an emergency room, pharmacy and housing for more than 100 staff members, the new hospital was cause for celebration in a community that has to travel long distances for all but the most basic health care.
But there hasn’t been enough clean water to fill a large tank that stands nearby, so the hospital sits empty.
The Navajo Nation has for years been locked in contentious negotiations with the state of Arizona over water. With the tribe’s claims not yet settled, the water sources it can access are limited.
The hospital tried tapping an aquifer, but the water was too salty to use. If it could reach an agreement with the state, the tribe would have other options, perhaps even the nearby Little Colorado River. But instead, the Dilkon Medical Center’s grand opening has been postponed, and its doors remain closed.
For the people of the Navajo Nation, the fight for water rights has real implications. Pipelines, wells […]
This is a more complex issue than even the article describes. I ranch in the area as well as my regular jobs and ranchers and farmers are being cut out of the water questions all through Arizona in favor of big cities having the water. Development of housing complexes in this area needs to stop. No farming – no food. In the greater Tucson area, many places have less than 10 years water supply before the aqufiers will be drained. Wells are at 1200 feet and counting. Further, we are a symbiotic species and this is a fragile species environment. We destroy local species access to water and we can only die with them.
Native Americans are the only “TRUE” Americans on this continent.
P.S.: The Native Americans should have the ONLY say in what happens on THEIR property!