Pumping Water With DigDeep

Nearly 40% of Navajo families don’t have clean, running water at home. DIGDEEP is a non-profit organization working on the Navajo Nation in rural New Mexico, where families living below the poverty line haul dirty or expensive water from open ponds, livestock troughs or bottling stations up to 50 miles away.

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What DigDeep wants to do

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They’re digging a new well in the middle of this remote community and delivering clean water to local homes by truck. They want to help by designing a PV-powered system that can safely store, pump, filter and heat this water for use in the home. More than half of the families in the area do not have electricity. They have already begun installing conventionally-powered home water systems. They aim to help modify these systems to run on photovoltaic power. Their goal is to develop an inexpensive prototype system together that DIGDEEP can then replicate and install. To be successful, the system needs to be easy to understand, maintain and repair.