Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID AZ_2023_Carpio

Water Stories: Enhancing Arizona Water Knowledge with Indigenous Perspectives

Institute: Arizona
Year Established: 2023 Start Date: 2023-09-01 End Date: 2024-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $10,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $10,002

Principal Investigators: Myla Vicenti Carpio

Project Summary: Water stories will contribute to the public policy and socioeconomic dialogue needed for education, action, and knowledge exchange. By personalizing the concerns and importance of water in Arizona, we empower communities to develop creative solutions to water challenges. By telling stories, Native American worldviews illustrate an inherent interconnectedness between water quality (the health of the water) and Indigenous well-being (the health of the people); this fundamental belief has been popularized and politicized by the phrase “Water is Life” (Yazzie & Baldy, 2018).This 12-month project will support and train students and community members to conduct research for, write, and publish opinion editorials (op-eds) in local, regional, or Tribal news outlets. These students and community members will attend op-ed training through The OpEd Project. These participants will reach a broader, more local audience through news sources their communities are most likely to access.