Light and Running Water

            I find it difficult to believe that thousands of Americans are living without electricity and have done so for years. I have been on enough many camping trips where I lived for a few days at a time with light from a kerosene lantern. There is a certain smell from the fuel, but the thing I hate the most is the fact that the light is centered around the lantern and the rest of the room is dark. I cannot imagine living like that for years, and yet many people do. There are 15,000 people who live their regular, everyday lives without electricity, but the number is starting to fall.

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority typically connects from 400 to 450 homes a year, chipping away at the 15,000 scattered, rural homes without power on the 27,000-square-mile reservation that lies in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

At that rate, it will take the tribal utility about 35 more years to get electricity to the 60,000 of the reservation’s 180,000 residents who don’t have it….

Navajos without electricity also pack food or medication in coolers with ice or leave it outside in the wintertime. Children use dome lights in cars or kerosene lamps to do their homework at night. Some tribal members have small solar systems that deliver intermittent power.

No electricity typically means no running water and a lack of overall economic development. Creating the infrastructure to reach the far-flung homes on the reservation is extremely costly.

Hooking up a single home can cost up to $40,000 on the reservation where the annual, per-capita income is around $10,700 and half the workforce is unemployed….

            There is a project in progress at the current time to install electricity in more homes. The Navajos clear the trees and make the necessary preparations. Then volunteer electrical workers place the power poles, string the electrical wires, and make the necessary preparations for each home.

            I hope that the project can put electricity into thousands of homes this year instead of just a few hundred. Meanwhile, I will be extra grateful for the electricity in my home that brings unnumbered blessings, such as light in the corners of the room and running water.