DigDeep received the 2023/24 Haury Indigenous Resilience Award at the 2024 WASH Conference in Washighton, DC
Congratulations to the DigDeep team for receiving a 2023/2024 Haury Program Indigenous Resilience Leadership Award! This award honors people and programs that advance tribal resilience goals, with particular attention to those that address the ways in which climate change is having a disparate impact on Indigenous communities.
DigDeep is a non-profit organization dedicated to closing the Water Gap once and for all by bringing clean, hot and cold running water into American homes. The Haury Programs honors them for their work on the Navajo Nation in alleviating water insecurity, and helping many communities during the Covid 19 pandemic. The Haury Program had an honor to contribute to the Navajo Water Project and thus saw first-hand the positive impact of DigDeep with being a part of the Navajo Water Access Coordination Group (WACG). WACG was formed under the joint leadership of the Mr. James Adakai (Department Manager II, Capital Projects Management Department, Navajo Nation Division of Community Development), and Captain David Harvey (Deputy Director Office of Environmental Health and Engineering, Division of Sanitation Facilities Construction, Indian Health Service), both 2020 Haury Indigenous Resilience Leadership awardees, to respond to water needs of off-grid families during the COVID crisis. WACG is composed of Navajo leaders, Nation and Federal agencies, non- profits, universities, and a philanthropy.
On behalf of the Haury Program, the award was presented at the beginning of May in Washington, DC during the 2024 US WASH Gathering by Nina Sajovec, Haury Program Coordinator, and accepted by George McGrow, founder and CEO, and DigDeep Board members. “We are honored,” said Mr. McGrow, “to be receiving this award, and are grateful for the partnership with the Haury Program on the Navajo Water Access Program. We are committed to our mission to get clean and safe running water to more households on the Navajo Nation as currently 30% of families live without it. This is also an equity issue, as Native American households are 19 times more likely to live without water then white households.” For more information on this project please visit DigDeep website.
The second recipient of the Haury Indigenous Resilience Leadership award in 2023/2024 was Levi Esquerra of the University of Arizona Native American Advancement & Tribal Engagement Office (NAATE). NAATE and DigDeep are joining other esteemed Indigenous resilience leaders who received this award in years past. For more information please visit our website.