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MONUMENT VALLEY — On the outskirts of Monument Valley, touching the Arizona-Utah border, a water well is encased in a brick building behind a barb-wired fence. A few cattle graze nearby, mooing to occasionally pierce the quiet.

Residents say the well is one of two in the area, a couple miles from a small town on the Navajo Reservation. One well is a direct line to hotels. This one, leading to a one-spigot watering hole a few miles away, is the main water supply for about 900 people living nearby.

The first residents of the day, with big plastic bottles and buckets lining truck beds and packed into car trunks as they drive along miles of rock-strewn, dirt roads, start to arrive.

Lack of running water

Verna Yazzie, who runs an Airbnb in Monument Valley, takes an 18-mile round trip when she needs water. She goes to the watering hole a few times a week and said she has to go off-roading for six miles to get to the nearest water source.

“We’ve never had running water for as long as I remember,” Yazzie said. “I usually haul water about three times a week for ourselves, for our livestock and for our planting. The difficulties are mostly the rough roads that we have to drive. It’s about nine miles one way from my house to the nearest water hole.”