Representatives of the International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH) have returned to the Navajo Nation this week to support the installation of new toilet and washroom facilities for the Naatsis’áán (Navajo Mountain) Chapter House.

While the Naatsis’áán community is relocating their hub, the existing Chapter House, the base for the most recent Community Plumbing Challenge project undergoes major renovation.

“This week, the team is installing a cistern system and a septic system at the Arizona warehouse office building, which we will be using for our temporary chapter office building,” Naatsis’áán Chapter community services coordinator Lorena Atene says.

“The new office is very important, to help us continue providing services for families in the local community.”

“Through our Chapter House, we provide services for bathroom additions, minor renovations, roof replacements, and we process paperwork to do with power line extensions and house wiring projects for families that are being hooked up to power lines,” Atene continues.

“So from the new site we are going to be able to continue this remote office work and important communications with Window Rock offices plus all the other entities we work with, to make things happen for our community.”

The team tasked with the renovation includes two IWSH representatives: Jed Scheuermann and Randy Lorge plus a range of volunteers.

“We have been given another opportunity to help the Navajo Nation, so we thought it would be a great chance to bring some new people out here — as well as some older, familiar faces — and do some good for our community,” UA Local Union 412 business manager Courtenay Eichhorst says.

Courtney was the most recent recipient of the inaugural IWSH Award in recognition of his dedicated support toward the development of the first U.S. CPC program.

“We’ve brought a young female apprentice — Sasha Sun — and this is her second time out here. And we’ve brought another apprentice — Aaron Heitman — who has never done this before! This is the first time he has been out here, and he is super excited to help; he was one of the first to volunteer,” she says.

He has never been in Arizona! So this was the perfect opportunity to come out and help us; as well as providing these folks with their new, temporary Chapter House, we have the opportunity to teach some of our apprentices what it is like to do more residential-style plumbing out here on the reservation, rather than the industrial-style plumbing in the middle of town that we normally do.

“At UA Local 412, one of the biggest things we are focus on is community involvement.”

Companies or organisations who wish to get involved with the CPC Navajo Mountain program or any further CPC programs can email them viainfo@iwsh.org.