31 



A Commionent to Alaskans 



Rural Strategy 



Providing Adequate Sanitation Services is 

 Crucial to the VitaUty, Public Health, and 

 Ek^onomic Growth of Rural Alaska. 



PUBLIC 

 HEALTH 



As Alaska looks to the future and a growing population, it is essential that we strive to 

 provide services which protect the public health of our rural residents and lay a 

 foundation for economic development opportunities. 



Adequate water, sewerage, and solid waste services are cornerstones to realizing these 

 goals. 



As the twenty-first century nears, citizens in over half of the State's rural communities 

 do not have piped water or flush toilets. Over ninety percent of the sewerage facilities 

 in rural Alaska have been assessed by the federal government as inadequate. State and 

 federal agencies have estimated the costs of providing acceptable sanitation facilities 

 in every rural community to be $1.2 to $1.3 billion. These are startling statistics and 

 they highlight the magnitude of the problem. 



Without adequate water and sewerage facilities, personal hygiene is difficult, if not 

 impossible. The lack of facilities to properly dispose of human waste, combined with 

 insufficient quantities of safe water often result in threats to public health. Village 

 residents experience a number of waterbome and communicable diseases which could 

 be avoided if means to support improved personal hygiene and safe drinking water were 

 available. 



The provision of acceptable sanitation services is often a prerequisite to economic 

 development and growth. However, many villages lack these basic facilities. Numer- 

 ous nual communities, for example, are unable to attract the seafood processing 

 industry because their water and sewerage facilities do not meet standards required to 

 FrONOMir suppon the industry. Likewise, the full potential of the tourism business may not be 

 j^P^p. (-)p»«ir]vji' realized in rural Alaska since even the most seasoned traveler would prefer to visit an 

 area where safe drinking water and flush toilets are available and refuse is consolidated 

 out of sight. Another example of an economic development opportunity which 

 demands sanitation infrastructure is port development. To attract shoreline businesses, 

 not only do our ports and harbors need adequate docks and breakwaters^ but adequate 

 water and sewer are also critical. Under MARPOL, coastal communities must also 

 provide solid waste facilities in order to engage in marine commerce, yet adequate 

 facilities are not available in many of our more promising rural ports. 



One of the indicators often used to measure the quality of life in a community is the 



public service infrastructure provided to residents. Carrying a sloshing bucket of 



QUALITY human waste to pitch in a pond or hauling water from a watering point would not be 



OF LIFE acceptable to the vast majority of Americans, yet many rural Alaskans contend with 



I these hardships daily. Providing water, sewerage, and solid waste services to every 



community by the year 2010 will allow all Alaskans to experience the quality of life 

 taken for granted throughout the rest of the nation and much of the world. 



14. 



