More than 160 IBEW members from 23 states have traveled to the Navajo Nation over the past two years to help connect residents there with a modern-day convenience most of us consume without thinking: electricity.
Why it matters: IBEW-affiliated Electrical Workers Without Borders joined the Light Up Navajo initiative by recruiting IBEW volunteers lending their expertise to change lives by bringing light, refrigeration and air conditioning to homes that never had them.
Navajo Nation representatives came to Washington in late February to sound the alarm over a budget shortfall that could endanger the program within two years.
State of play: The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority’s Walter Haase said he was there to put out the word to members of Congress. “Most of them don’t know there is a problem,” Haase said. The authority is the largest tribal owned utility in the U.S.
Haase was among the delegation of Navajo leaders and members of the reservation’s utility company who met with International Secretary-Treasurer Paul Noble, Government Affairs staff, and Electrical Workers Without Borders President Chris Erikson, former International Executive Council chairman.
“The IBEW has a big heart and we love being members of our community,” Noble told the delegation. “We want to be partners with you.”
By the numbers: Today approximately 10,000 families on the sprawling Navajo Nation do not have access to electricity. The sparsely distributed population is spread out across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, which makes electrical grid extensions expensive. They can cost more than $40,000 per home.
Many homes lack the necessary wiring to connect to the electrical lines if lines are extended to the properties. Unlike most of the country, investor-owned utilities and co-ops do not serve the reservation.
The big picture: IBEW volunteers rotate in on two-week shifts. So far, they have provided more than 7,500 hours of services to Navajo nation, about $800,000 value, said Jim O’Leary, Electrical Workers Without Border executive director. Private donations have enabled the program to purchase two pickup trucks and nine bags of hand tools used by volunteers. Next on the equipment list: diggers and bucket trucks.
In Washington, the Navajos are looking to connect to philanthropic organizations and congressional committees that could direct funding to the program.
“We can’t do it alone,” Haase said.
Erikson will soon make his second trip to the Navajo Nation, where he said delivering electricity to someone who has never had it is heartwarming.
“It is emotional and so rewarding,” said Erikson, former business manager of New York Local 3. “They can’t get over how far away we come from as volunteers to help them.”
Photo caption: New York Local 3 wireman Chris Donato traveled to the Navajo Reservation to volunteer.