Water is scarce in much of the Mountain West. That’s why, every spring, one tribe spends days cleaning ditches that are vital to irrigating their farmlands. But aging infrastructure and the effects of climate change are making it harder for farmers to get enough water – even after the cleanings.

As residents of a small community on the Navajo Nation eagerly await construction of a 7-mile water pipeline from the Rio Grande, they imagine the luxuries of running water.

Construction will soon begin on a 7-mile pipeline that will deliver water from the Rio Grande to the small Navajo community of To’Hajiilee, where the water's so bad the local government trucks in bottled water for residents.

The Diné Household Water Survey, a first-of-its-kind two-year project led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, aims to accurately quantify the number of households without access to safe drinking water.

For 40 years, the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico has been working to access the water they feel they’re owed by the federal government. And those efforts are more urgent than ever as climate change and development continue to affect their water supplies.

In the Southwest, tribal health organizations are finding ways to counter the factors – including the lack of access to clean drinking water – that contribute to high rates of childhood obesity in Native communities.