Bidtah Becker is a member of the Navajo Nation and an attorney with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority. She also serves on the Leadership Team for the Water and Tribes Initiative in the Colorado Basin. (See more background information on Bidtah below).
Last week, the Water and Tribes Initiative (WTI) released a report, "Universal Access to Clean Drinking Water for Tribal Communities in the Colorado River Basin," which has received widespread coverage across national and regional media outlets (Inside Climate News, Guardian, Grist). The report highlights the lack of access to clean water on Indian Reservations, how the COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on this inequity – Native Americans are 3.5 more likely to be affected by COVID-19 than white populations – and the Federal government's responsibility to provide clean water to Tribal communities.
As co-lead of WTI's initiative on Universal Access to Clean Drinking Water for Tribal Communities, Bidtah can speak to the topic of environmental health and injustice in great detail, both personally and professionally. See the Executive Summary to the Report here.
Bidtah also serves as the Vice-Chair of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission. She previously served as the Director of the Navajo Nation Division of Natural Resources as an appointee of then President Begaye and Vice-President Nez and confirmed by the Navajo Nation Council. In all of Bidah's roles, she has focused on water management frameworks and water supply solutions that benefit tribal members and surrounding non-Indian communities and that work to correct historical injustices.
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