Alaska villages receive funds to improve indoor plumbing and water supplies

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The USDA will provide funding through the Rural Alaska Village Grant (RAVG) program for 16 communities in Alaska to improve public health and the quality of local water supplies. The State of Alaska and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) will disperse approximately $29 million amongst the villages to assist with indoor plumbing and other clean water initiatives.

“It’s been a long time coming for these rural communities,” says Larry Yerich, USDA Rural Development public information officer. “If you’re outside of it, you can’t really wrap your head around the logistics of rural Alaska.”

Residents in the rural communities have been using portable waste containers called “honey buckets.” The local projects will provide a safe option for 123 homeowners to discharge wastewater.

“Adopting what western people have brought in, such as indoor plumbing, has been a very slow process for remote, rural villages that are separated by hundreds of miles from the next remote, rural village,” says Yerich. He says the logistics of rural Alaska are the reason for lack of plumbing and clean water systems. “There are no easy ways to get the people and materials to the communities that have existed for hundreds of years.”

According to the Alaska Village Safe Water program, the percentage of rural homes with indoor plumbing has increased from an estimated 60 percent in 1998 to an estimated 80 percent today, but the work is not done. Approximately one in five rural homes still lack a flush toilet and a faucet.

“ANTHC and the Village Safe Water program will bring on employee project superintendents and crews from the local community as much as possible,” says Yerich. Keeping residents involved in the improvement projects also reduces high unemployment rates throughout rural Alaska.

Village Safe Water project manager David Longtin said in a statement from the USDA, “The construction season is short and it’s challenging to get all the heavy equipment and building materials to a site. Using local workers is a win-win – it helps keep labor costs down, limits travel costs, and provides jobs for local residents.”

The indoor plumbing portion of the grant is already in full swing, and the water and waste disposal efforts will get underway soon. All water and sewer services are to be completed by 2015.

Yerich adds, We’re really pleased to see these projects working.

For more information on USDA Rural Development projects, visit www.rurdev.usda.gov.



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