In late 2020, Nalgene Outdoor partnered with Diné designer Jaden Redhair to create a limited-edition “Tó éí iiná” (Water is Life) bottle, from which $5 of every sale was committed to raise money for solutions to help resolve the water crisis across the Navajo Nation. After record sales and multiple rounds of reprints, the Nalgene Water Fund is pleased to announce that it will donate an additional $36,000 between two nonprofit partners on the Navajo Nation, DigDeep and Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment (COPE), bringing the growing total over two years to nearly $80,000 in support.

The majority of the most recent donation will aid DigDeep, a national nonprofit organization working to ensure every American has access to running water and sanitation inside their homes. $33,000 will go directly to DigDeep’s Navajo Water Project , a community-managed utility alternative that brings hot and cold running water to homes on the reservation that are not connected to piped water or sewer lines.  The donation is in addition to nearly $14,500 previously contributed by Nalgene Outdoor to DigDeep’s Navajo Water Project, and will help DigDeep achieve their goal of installing water systems in 200 homes across the Navajo Nation this year. 

Helping 200 Homes Get Running Water

On the Navajo Nation, DigDeep Home Water Systems bring clean, hot and cold running water to homes previously without water access.  First, the Navajo Water Project team installs a 1200-gallon water tank underground at each residence and connects it to basic plumbing inside the home. If the house is not connected to the power grid, the DigDeep team will also install a solar power unit that powers the water system, as well as lights and charging ports inside the home.

The 1200-gallon water tank is buried to prevent freezing and protects the water from contaminants. Inside, the system includes a sink, water heater, filter, expansion tank, pressure gauge, drain line, leach field and, optionally, solar power and lights.

The tanks are refilled by  DigDeep’s network of locally-managed water trucks that transport safe drinking water from EPA-approved water access points to the home.  Water deliveries are another initiative supported by Nalgene Outdoor donations.

Creating Critical Jobs

DigDeep’s Navajo Water Project is Indigenous-led and locally staffed. In addition to supporting Home Water Systems, Nalgene Water Fund donations have also helped to fund staff training, including CDL training that is offered to Navajo technicians wishing to become licensed as water truck delivery drivers, as well as water truck maintenance and deliveries.     

In addition to its support of DigDeep, Nalgene Outdoor’s latest donation will also include an additional $3,000 and 100 30-ml Nalgene sampling bottles to Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment (COPE), a non-profit organization working to address health disparities in Navajo Nation through community-based outreach and food security initiatives.

In 2020 and 2021, Nalgene donated nearly $30,000 in critical funding and supplies to COPE. to install water refill stations and provide carboys (large vessels) to transport water from source to residence in one container.  

Nalgene Outdoor’s most recent donation will help fund a new pilot COPE program,  “Student Citizen Water Project” that  will empower six students to collect water samples in Nalgene water bottles in some of Navajo Nation’s most marginalized areas. Data from these results will then prioritize placement of the filtered water refill stations donated by the Nalgene Water Fund.  

This student-centered approach models The Flint Community Lab, also a recipient of Nalgene Water Fund support, and a first of its kind, community-based water testing facility in Flint, Michigan. A unique concept — for the community, by the community — the Lab uses high school students to collect water samples. A multi-generational approach, this concept builds trust in the process where younger members work side-by-side with elders to help assess water safety.

The NWF is proud to connect COPE’s student testing program with The Flint Community Lab who has generously offered to test the water for COPE  using their  state-of-the art testing equipment.

In August 2019 Nalgene established the Nalgene Water Fund committed to raising awareness that equitable access to clean water is a domestic issue, not just an issue that impacts “third-world” countries. For its first donation, in late 2020, Nalgene Outdoor selected the McKenzie Patrice Croom Water Lab, more commonly referred to as the “Flint Community Lab,” a creation between the Flint Development Center and non-profit Freshwater Future. The Flint Community Lab is a first-of-its-kind, community-built and operated lab that will, over the course of three years, provide free water testing to all households in Flint, Michigan, a community still reeling from its 2014 water crisis. 

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Nalgene Outdoor donated nearly $650,000 to the Flint Community Lab in state-of-the-art laboratory instruments, critical funding and reusable bottles used for both water sample collection and continued use at home. This donation includes a total of 21,000 Nalgene bottles over the three years to be used to collect and test water; and then refill and reuse once the drinking water is determined safe.

The Lab’s guiding principle is for the community, by the community. High school and college students take a multi-generational approach to go door-to-door to collect water samples from homes that are then tested in the Lab. The Lab even has a viewing area for Flint residents to watch the testing! 

With summer — and a new crop of interns — joining the Lab, Nalgene recently delivered 1,500 more bottles to the Flint Community Lab to aid in the Lab’s commitment to meet or exceed 500 sample collections per month. 

Nalgene Outdoor: Hi! And welcome to this position! As we work through the otherside of this Covid pandemic, what major initiatives is the Flint Community Lab pursuing?

Candice Mushatt: We are looking forward to the summer months, more people will be outside, there is a certain comfort level that comes with open air as opposed to enclosed spaces, so we will reach more residents at events or on their front porch.  We are looking to meet and exceed our 500 (sample collection) per month goal, in July we will be launching a campaign to do just that.

Nalgene Outdoor: Where are you in your goal to test all 21,000 homes in Flint?

Candice Mushatt: Unfortunately, Covid has slowed down some of our timing, so we are still at what feels like the beginning of the process — currently at just under 3,000 homes. That said, we have a plan in place to use the summer and outdoor months, as well as a more sustainable model for the winter months, to continue to make significant progress to test every residential home in Flint.

Nalgene Outdoor: How many local high school students are you currently working with and what are there roles and responsibilities?

Candice Mushatt: We are currently interviewing our next group of high school students, in Flint/Michigan the school year is coming to a close. We are in the process of recruiting new students and will have 5 or  6 new students working with us all summer starting at the end of June.

Nalgene Outdoor: What is the most impactful way in which the Flint Community Lab supports its local community?

Candice Mushatt: The Flint Community Lab is important for Flint residents because it is a stand alone lab, we are not connected to any governmental entity, so it has become a trusted source for residents that are still very skeptical of information coming from the government. The Lab was founded by Flint residents, it is run by Flint residents and we offer internships to Flint and surrounding area students. This adds to the credibility of the Lab. When you have people who not only work here, but live here and are also affected by the crisis, it gives you a sense of confidence in the integrity of the lab.

We are them and they are us.

Nalgene Outdoor: What are you most excited about in year two of this program?

Candice Mushatt: In addition to finally getting back out there and on pace with our goals to help provide transparency and trust for Flint residents with resources from within the community, the new media lab! This is a collaboration between The Flint Development Center, The Flint Community Lab, We the People of Detroit and Freshwater Futures. We are so excited about this addition! To further build ties with the community and show total transparency, we are able to broadcast live over multiple streaming platforms right from inside the lab. We also have a robot, ROVY, that we can send a temporary link to users and they are able to control it and tour the lab from wherever they are in the world!

World Water Day, held on March 22 every year since 1993, raises awareness for the 2.2 billion people worldwide living without access to safe water and advocates for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6: Sustainable access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for all by 2030.

For many, the day focuses attention on the world’s most impoverished, underdeveloped nations. But would it surprise you to learn that nearly 2.2 million+ people living in America — the most developed nation on Earth – also lack daily access to clean water, running toilets, and plumbing that the rest of us take for granted?

We create signature Nalgene bottles – sometimes beautifully designed by local artists – to raise awareness and funds to help U.S. communities impacted by the growing domestic water gap. We also use the heft of our website, social media, paid and earned media to educate the masses and implore them not to take for granted the water that runs so easily from their tap. 

By the numbers, the U.S. water crisis is startling: 

• 1.4 million people in the United States and 250,000 people in Puerto Rico lack access to hot and cold running water, a sink, a shower/bath, or a flush toilet. An additional 553,000 homeless people lack equitable access to running water and sanitation in America.
• More than 44 million people in the USA are served by water systems that recently had health-based Safe Drinking Water Act violations.
• African-American and Latinx households are nearly twice as likely to lack complete plumbing than white households, and Native American households are 19 times more likely making race the strongest predictor of water and sanitation access in the United States.
• Lack of adequate water infrastructure is the root cause, not living off the grid and the problem extends across the whole USA.  Entire communities from California to Pennsylvania lack access to water and sanitation because of historical and geographical factors in the United States.

Source: Dig Deep’s and the U.S. Water Alliance’s 2019 report entitled “Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States” 

These statistics only scratch the surface on the full extent of the problem so the Nalgene Water Fund is also hard at work putting the dollars we raise through the sale of our Nalgene Water Fund bottles to work with local nonprofits fighting to right this wrong in US communities:

• Flint, Michigan: In 2020, through a partnership with Freshwater Future and Thermo-Fisher Scientific, the NWF donated more than $650,000 to the Flint Community Lab in state-of-the-art laboratory instruments, critical funding and reusable bottles used for both water sample collection and continued use at home.  In 2022, the NWF will send a second installment of 7,000 Nalgene bottles for collecting local water samples for testing.
• Navajo Nation: In 2021, the NWF partnered with Jaden Redhair, a local Navajo designer to create the “Water is Life” bottle, which to date has raised more than $45,000 toward efforts to improve access to clean water on the Navajo Nation in partnership with two Navajo nonprofits:  C.O.P.E and Dig Deep. In 2022, the NWF is working with Redhair on a second “Water is Life” bottle design whose funds will again benefit Dig Deep’s Navajo Water Project, ultimately aiding in better sanitation systems, job training, and employment opportunities.
• Benton Harbor, Michigan: In 2021, the NWF contributed more than $16,000 to install eight water refill stations that filter out lead in schools and also send nearly 3,000 Nalgene bottles to schools located in Benton Harbor, MI.  The NWF’s donation ensures that all students in grades K-12 have access to clean drinking water and bottles to drink it from. In 2022, water samples from all the fountains will be taken monthly and shipped to the Flint Community Lab for testing to determine filter maintenance and keep the refill stations working hard! 

This World Water Day, when much of the world is reflecting on water challenges overseas, the Nalgene Water Fund (NWF) will continue to focus its efforts on helping the more than two million Americans that lack access to running water, indoor plumbing, or wastewater services. 

Hard-hit domestic areas include Navajo Nation and Flint, MI, where contaminated water sources, infrastructure, affordability, and more threaten the basic right of clean water for all.  Inequities to clean water access are not isolated to just these known areas, however, as its increasingly a struggle across all parts of America. 

Water inequalities can impact anyone. Even you. So it is important that Americans realize and raise awareness for the nation’s growing water crisis. That is why the NWF strives to educate and raise the necessary funds for local nonprofits to tackle the water gap in their communities.  

How can you help?  Get educated and help Nalgene spread the word!

According to Dig Deep’s and the U.S. Water Alliance’s 2019 report entitled “Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States,” where you live, your race, and your income affects your access to clean water. Some important stats to note and share from this report include:

• More than 2 million Americans live without basic access to safe drinking water and sanitation. This number includes: 1.4 million people in the U.S., plus 250,000 residents in Puerto Rico, that lack access to indoor plumbing (hot and cold running water, a sink, shower or bath, or a flushing toilet); and 553,000 homeless people in the U.S.  who may lack equitable water and sanitation access.
• Race is the strongest predictor of water and sanitation access. Nationwide, Native American households are 19 times more likely than white households to lack access to complete plumbing, while African American and Latinx households are nearly twice as likely.
• Poverty is a key obstacle to water access. Lower-than-average household income makes up higher percentages of households lacking complete plumbing access, regardless of race. The same holds true with higher percentages of residents without high school diplomas. 
• This crisis is not about isolated individuals or households living “off the grid,” but instead about entire communities lacking access to clean water and safe sanitation.