PHOENIX — With last week's flooding on the Navajo Nation, there are new questions about infrastructure on the reservation.
According to different estimates, roughly 30% of homes on the Navajo Nation do not have running water and about 20% don't have electricity, but exact numbers are not known.
Recently, ABC15 sat down with both candidates running for Navajo Nation President to see how they would tackle infrastructure issues.
"I grew up in a home without running water, without electricity," says Crystalyne Curley, current Navajo Nation Council Speaker who is running to become the first female Navajo President. "To this day, we don't have a safe road. We don't have access to broadband, clean water. And I have not waited to be President. I started that work already within my time as a legislator and Speaker, leading with my colleagues at the Council with three historic Navajo water bills that moved through our Council without opposition."
For Speaker Curley, infrastructure is an issue she says can unite people on the Navajo Nation. "We're not here to divide our people," Curley says. "We want to bring our people together with our professionals, our experts, our workforce and really tackle the issue up and down. We want what is best for our Navajo people."
For Justin Jones, the main obstacle to getting infrastructure improvements is getting rid of corruption. "The corruptive practices have to be neutralized because it impedes a lot of things," says Jones. "I think that in every which way like water projects, electrical projects, and other things we really need to begin to streamline those, but we have to get our corruptive practices out of the way."
Jones also argues that despite some suggesting there is no money for these projects, there is a way to cut out waste in the budget to accommodate.
"What we need to do now is identify the waste," says Jones. "And we have to really examine the overall structure of the government. Is it effective and is it efficient?" During the debate at ASU earlier this month, Jones had discussed what he calls widespread corruption in the Navajo Nation at all levels of government.
ABC15 reached out to the Curley campaign to ask about the accusations of "waste" in the budget, which Speaker Curley oversaw as head of the Navajo Nation Council. Her campaign issued this response:
"A lot of what Justin Jones says publicly sounds very similar to Trump's ideas. This sounds like a DOGE approach that will only lead to cuts in direct services to the Navajo people. He's never worked within our government and has no idea the realities of providing direct services."
