sanitation

Life is challenging in Lower Kalskag, Alaska. An isolated village only accessible by plane or boat, or an ice road in the winter, Lower Kalskag's 300 residents have no running water or toilets and pay four and five times the price for goods you and I take for granted. A third of the population lives below the poverty level and over half of the population lacks year-round employment. Located past the southwest end of the snow-capped Portage Mountains on an icy bend of the Kuskokwim River, I was fortunate enough to visit Lower Kalskag and see first-hand the critical role USDA Rural Development plays in our most remote communities.

With assistance from our partner, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, USDA Rural Development is providing investment through our Rural Alaska Village Grant program to construct water and wastewater treatment facilities, as well as connect the residents of Lower Kalskag to the system. By 2017, this nearly century-old settlement will have indoor plumbing for the very first time.

Literally millions of tourists have visited Alaska, a state which is over twice the size of Texas.  While many have seen the southeast region and the southcentral corridor stretching from Fairbanks through Anchorage and south to the Kenai Peninsula, relatively few have visited southwest and Interior Alaska, home to many small, predominantly Native villages.  These communities have faced numerous challenges, not the least of which is effective trash and waste disposal. It is expensive to haul the needs of daily life into a community, and also expensive to remove those items after they have reached the end of their usefulness.