Faced with daunting gaps in water and sewer systems, some Alaska Native communities are thinking small.
Part 1: For some Alaska villages, the lack of modern water and sewer service means more health risks
Many residents of rural Alaska suffer higher rates of illnesses because they lack basic infrastructure.
It includes $230 million for an EPA water grant program in Alaska, as well as money for climate resilience — some of which is designated for community relocation.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the U.S. Senate includes $3.5 billion for water and sanitation, some of which will go to rural Alaska villages.
The outbreak in California, the largest since the U.S. started tracking hepatitis A, lays bare the fact that homelessness can be as much a cause of disease as the virus itself.
In California's Sonoma County, an alarming number of tenants live in housing so run down that it poses a risk to their health and safety. For Karla Orozco's family, the hazards included mold, rats and cockroaches, a broken heater, and sewage backups.
In communities without running water and flush toilets, 11 times more children develop pneumonia than other Alaskans, and some develop complications that can lead to lifelong respiratory problems.
What if you didn’t have piped water and sewer, and the government wasn’t picking up the tab to extend such resources to you in rural Alaska? How would you go about finding a low-cost system that you could keep running through the winter?
You don't have to go to a foreign country to find Third World conditions. You can find more than six percent of Alaskans living in those conditions — without modern running water or sewer systems.
Using a bucket as a toilet, hauling water or chopping ice to melt for daily use are daily facts of life for thousands of Alaska natives. Meanwhile, the state is flush with cash, prompting the question of why such conditions persist.
