Human health jeopardized by water shortages in rural Alaska

 

[caption id="attachment_21785" align="alignleft" width="300"] Water tank in Alaska[/caption]

Gordon Matilla---Alaska is known for its fishing villages, oil and gas wells and the beauty of the frozen landscape, but it's in the outback areas where water shortages are making it difficult for those who live in Alaska's rural villages. So what are the consequences of limited water in these areas?

Water is needed for many purposes, outside of drinking and cooking. Water is used for cleaning and general hygiene, so the quantity and the quality of available water is important.

In places where water is scarce people use communal basins for washing their hands. But this allows infectious particles to travel from hand to hand. It means more diseases, as the washbasins serve as places to transfer diseases.

Recent research in Alaska has found that people who live in places where there is plenty of water are likely to be healthier than those people in Alaska in the rural areas where water is more limited.

Many communities in rural areas have difficulty paying oil and gas bills to fix aging systems that are filing. So as prices rise, functioning systems are unaffordable. Climate change is a further problem, adding to the difficulty with the systems of containing water and storing it.

A number of different organizations are trying to improve the situation by providing and improving water services in some of these Alaskan villages.

There are a variety of entities in Alaska working towards improving health outcomes in rural Alaska by providing and improving water services in villages. The U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC) is coordinating these groups so there can be an improvement in Arctic human health.