Civic Academy

Infrastructure 101: Roads, Water & Broadband

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The everyday gaps — and why they’re so slow to close

Infrastructure is the least abstract issue in the whole election: it’s whether the road to your house is passable, whether the tap runs, and whether the internet works. On the Navajo Nation these basics are far from universal, and the gap touches almost everything else — health, school, jobs, and whether young people stay. This lesson covers the three that came up most: roads, water, and broadband.

In one line: Roads, water, and broadband are the everyday infrastructure gaps — and they’re slow to fix because so many layers of government have to line up.

Roads

Many Navajo roads are unpaved, and a dirt road that’s fine in dry weather can become impassable in rain or snow — stranding families, blocking the school bus, and delaying emergency vehicles. The reason it’s hard to fix is jurisdiction: a single route can involve Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), tribal, county, and state roads, each with its own authority and funding. Federal money flows partly through the Tribal Transportation Program, but braiding it together across all those owners is slow work.

Water

Many families still haul their water — driving to fill barrels rather than turning a tap. Fixing that runs through two things at once: physical infrastructure (wells, pipelines, treatment) and water rights, the legal question of how much water the Nation can actually claim and use. Large efforts like the Navajo–Gallup Water Supply Project, which grew out of a San Juan River settlement, aim to bring reliable water to communities that have gone without. Candidates differed on water-rights settlements — some argued the Nation can negotiate better terms than it has accepted — but agreed the need is urgent.

Broadband

Large stretches of the Nation have little or no reliable internet. That digital divide isn’t a convenience issue — it decides whether a student can do homework, whether a clinic can offer telehealth, and whether a business can operate. The COVID period made the gap impossible to ignore, as school and medicine moved online in places that had no connection. Expanding broadband is now a standard part of the economic-development conversation.

Why it’s so slow — and why it’s in the 2026 conversation

The common thread is layered jurisdiction and braided funding: federal, tribal, county, and state agencies all touch the same project, rights-of-way have to be cleared, and remoteness raises the cost per home. Areas held back the longest — including communities affected by the former Bennett Freeze — still carry the deepest deficits. That’s why candidates were pressed not just on whether they’d build, but on how they’d prioritize dollars and cut through the coordination that keeps projects stalled.

The short version

Roads, water, and broadband are the everyday infrastructure gaps. Roads stall on overlapping BIA/tribal/county/state authority; water runs through both pipelines and water rights; broadband is a digital divide that limits school, health, and jobs. All three are slow for the same reason — too many layers have to line up — so the real test of a plan is prioritization and coordination, not just the promise to build.

Terms on this page are defined in the glossary.

This lesson anchors a guided path: the Learning Mission →

Goes with: Who’s in charge? · Housing 101

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