Navajo families get electricity as climate change intensifies

WORKMEN plant electricity poles in the rust-orange earth of the Navajo Nation and run cables to Christine Shorty's house finally giving her power against the searing Arizona desert heat.

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It will be a luxury in the vast Native American reservation, the largest in the US, where more than 10 000 families are still without electricity and therefore air conditioning.

"It's climate change. It's getting hotter," Shorty said.

"This would be easier for us with the fan and maybe air conditioning. And we look forward to that."

In her 70 years, Shorty has seen her isolated, tiny hamlet of Tonalea, a dot in the enormous area of the reservation, change dramatically.

Summer monsoon rains are rarer, and temperatures can touch 40°C in July and August - previously unthinkable in the hamlet, located on a plateau at an altitude of 1 730m.

The area's seasonal lakes are drying up, and in some years the livestock are dying of thirst.

Like many others, Shorty has a generator and small solar panels that allow her to power a gas fridge, cook and watch television.

But their power is limited, and she often has to choose which appliance to plug in.