The NELM Water Project

Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission (NELM) is located in Rock Point, Arizona, in northeast corner of the state. For more than 70 years, NELM shared with the local community the story of Lutheran faith, a Christian private school, food bank and access to safe drinking water.

How many of us think about where our faucet water comes from and never wonder if it is safe to drink. More than half of the households in Rock Point either do not have running water or do not have access to safe drinking water.

NELM is an oasis for its community, and it is taking this idea quite literally with its latest project. In the desert, water is a precious commodity, but the mission, which has a well, has been practically giving it away to locals without other access to water. Residents fill portable water tanks, sometimes hundreds of gallons at a time, and drive home on treacherous roads. This water is useful, but not potable (not safe to consume).

Plans are underway to provide safe drinking water that meets national drinking water standards and the Navajo Nation’s Environmental Protection Agency drinking water requirements. Initial test results indicate we are closer to providing safe drinking water.

To ensure safe, potable water for all, the Mission must install a drinking water system that includes filtration and chlorination. Holding tanks, and the system to distribute it will require funds well beyond our means. NELM anticipates spending $65,000 for tanks and automated water disbursement systems. The lowest estimates to purchase equipment to fill water into 5-gallon containers and an ice machine come in at $45,000.

Your gifts through Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) are empowering Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission to meet the needs of its community. As Vance Blackfox, the ELCA’s Director for Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations, reminds us, “This is our responsibility, because these are our people. The people of Rock Point are not mouths to feed, they are people to know and lives to celebrate. And they are our siblings in Christ. Our work is just getting started, but this is the work of the church.”

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