Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative

Twice the size of Texas, Alaska is the largest state in the U.S. More than 175,000 Native people live within its 663,000 square miles. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) was founded in 1997 to ensure the health and wellbeing of Alaska's widely dispersed Native communities.

ANTHC provides world-class health services, which include comprehensive medical services, wellness programs, disease research and prevention, rural provider training, and rural water and sanitation systems construction. In 2007, the Consortium began an initiative focused on sanitation and clean water--critical contributors to good health.

For rural Alaska, providing water and sanitation service is not an easy task when temperatures get very cold, and infrastructure is often too complicated and expensive for local governments to operate and maintain alone.

Due to limited jobs for income, rural Alaska community members depend on subsistence harvesting and public assistance, all while dealing with a higher cost of living. Often, communities have to decide between paying for food or their utility bills.

According to a recent study in Alaska, energy costs are roughly 40% of water and sanitation operating costs, and 70 to 300 times higher than the national average.

Today, the Collaborative's 26 member communities retain ownership of their water and sanitation systems, and receive a foundation of financial and technical support with the ultimate goal of building local operational capacity.

Before joining the Collaborative, not one community had a maintenance reserve to cover emergency repairs. Today, 25 of the 26 member communities boast a reserve account that is fully funded, and the final is making great progress toward this goal.

Through the ARUC program’s demonstrated success, ANTHC is working on expanding ARUC’s membership by adding an additional 30 member communities, with a membership priority for unserved communities. This means 30 more rural Alaska communities could join ARUC’s 26 existing members and build essential local community leadership and operator capacity to sustain their new water/wastewater infrastructure.

Access to reliable water and sanitation services ultimately ensures the wellbeing and continuity of Alaska Native culture. Families are able to remain on traditional lands and pass down their Alutiiq, Dena'ina, Inupiaq, Yup'ik, and Siberian Yup'ik heritage to the next generation.