Ethical Issues In An Endless Tribal Water Fight

Ever since the market economy was introduced, our land and water are no longer managed by the local communities, rather they are regulated by the government. Some may believe that this transition is the ultimate problem to the decline and mistreatment of our water resources and land. Whether it is the main problem or not, one thing is for sure, our current ways of distributing our water and water rights are not as equitable as they should be. Often times the way the government distributes water it not the most efficient way possible. This issue greatly affects the people residing in the Southwest, including tribes from Arizona like the Hopi and the Navajo. One of the Senate Bills that involved the water rights of the two native tribes was

In response to this discussion, Senators Kyl and McCain wrote the article, “An Endless Tribal Water Fight,” in hopes of defending the intentions of their bill. On the other hand, Navajo representative, Ed Bencenti wrote the article, “Senate Bill 2109 Seeks to Extinguish Navajo and Hopi Water Rights,” in which he exposes the real intentions of the Senate Bill. Both Kyl and McCain do a good job of presenting their claims to support their interests. However, the intentions of the Senate Bill are not ethical and efficient; instead of attempting to alleviate the issue of the scarcity of water, it is contributing to this problem by taking away the water that belonged to the tribes’ and giving it to coal

The top priority of the Senators is clearly not the lives of the Navajo and the Hopi, but rather the “powerful mining and energy corporations” (Bencenti 1). What is more disturbing is that the corporations that Senators Kyl and McCain show interest to are one of the reasons why the water that the Navajo and Hopi tribes used to have access to is no longer readily available. According to Brian H. Hurd’s powerpoint “Who Owns Water? Water in the Southwest States,” a water right is the right to divert and use water beneficially. While it is hard to determine whether or not water is being used beneficially amongst the Southwest states, I would argue that the way the Senators claim to use the water that belongs to the Hopi and Navajo tribes is not beneficial. Giving coal corporations access to the water that belongs to the Hopi and the Navajo will only aid the rapid rates of the scarcity of water. The coal business will use the water to generate electricity; this process pollutes and effects the quality of the waters and wells that used to be readily available to people like the Navajo and the Hopi. The coal corporation is also violating one of the cornerstones suggested in Hurd’s powerpoint which states “new appropriations…must not harm, impair, damage, or diminish the rights of other appropriators.” The fact that the Bill plans on taking away the water of the Hopi and Navajo tribes and