Alaska Rural Water and Sanitation Working Group

The U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC), ANTHC, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently held a workshop on extending the design life of existing water and sanitation systems. Our focus was operations and maintenance program upgrades and approaches.

This year’s workshop was split into three sessions:

• An early morning session that will provide information on the Alaska Rural Water and Sanitation Workgroup’s progress over the last year, along with updates on current projects and the State of Alaska’s R&D Request for Teams initiative;
• A late morning/afternoon session focused on operations and maintenance in both the US and Canada. A review of the current state of affairs will be made, followed by several presentations that should stimulate new conversations on a variety of related topics; and
• An afternoon wrap up that circles back to the Workgroup’s overarching goal of maximizing the health benefits of in-home water and sanitation services in the rural North. Workshop participants will receive a short summary of recent health-related efforts by the CDC and others.