WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren today announced the Navajo Nation will join the Biden-Harris Administration’s new freshwater initiative.
The freshwater preservation plan called “The America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge: A Partnership to Conserve and Restore America’s Rivers, Lakes, Streams, and Wetlands” was launched during Earth Week, the White House reported today.
“To Navajos and all Indigenous people, water is a sacred element,” President Nygren said. “We in the Southwest, and especially Navajos, are aware daily how precious water is to our life, our livestock, our crops, wildlife and the natural world all around us. We are pleased to join the Biden-Harris Administration in this initiative.”
According to the White House, the purpose is to create a national freshwater protection plan to ensure freshwater resources are protected for current and future generations.
The effort will protect the country’s lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries and wetlands that are fundamental to the health and prosperity of communities and tribes.
By absorbing and storing carbon, waterways, wetlands, forests, grasslands and the farmlands they nourish play a critical role in the fight against climate change.
Since 2019, according to the White House, the U.S. wetland loss rate increased 50 percent over the previous decade.
A recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back protections from pollution and destruction for some of the U.S.’s most important and imperiled streams, wetlands and freshwater resources.
The “America the Beautiful Freshwater Challenge” will restore and reconnect eight million acres of wetlands and 100,000 miles of our nation’s river and streams.
The Navajo Nation is one of eight tribes and more than 100 inaugural members to support freshwater restoration in 10 states and 24 local governments.
For information, go to: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/97632-2/
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