Light Up Navajo

The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American territory in the United States, with an estimated population of 300,000. Among the 55,000 homes located on the 27,000 square mile reservation, about 15,000 do not have electricity. They make up 75% of all unelectrified households in the United States.
Not having access to electricity has many repercussions for Navajo families. One of the harshest being lack of access to running water. Families in the Navajo Nation drive 1-1.5 hours once or twice a week to reach watering points where they can fill 250-gallon plastic tanks with water for cooking, cleaning, and drinking. Not having electricity has also deprived families of reliable lighting and appliances such as refrigerators, toasters, and microwaves. To keep food from perishing, families often have to use portable coolers filled with ice to preserve their food for a few days.
The high cost of connecting isolated rural households to the grid, the sensitivity of families to utility costs, and the limited availability of government loans has made progress towards greater electrification slow. To expedite electrification projects in the Navajo Nation, the American Public Power Association in partnership with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) has launched the Light Up Navajo initiative.
The Light Up Navajo is an ongoing mutual-aid initiative to continue electrifying the 14,000 Navajo households that still do not have power. Over the last three years, volunteer crews from over 20 public power utilities across the country have been building electric lines for projects that will connect over a hundred new customers to the grid. The hope is that the effort will continue to serve as a successful model for future electrification projects.