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Basic Sanitation is the first step to health. Communities, threatened by rising sea levels and without running water still need clean water


Description

Summary

Basic Sanitation and clean water is the first step to health. We have a pilot project in Kivalina, a community on the northwest coast of Alaska, that provides basic sanitation (drinking water and waste disposal) nine homes. Each home was equipped with a rain catchment system, Campwater treatment System (giardia and cyst rated filters), gravity fed water system, waterless urinal, and a separating toilet.

The community of Kivalina is above the arctic circle is threatend by coastal floods and winter storms. There is not a centralized water and sewer system in the village.  For the entires community, there is a washeteria that includes a watering point, and washer and dryers and one functioning bathroom. The pilot project is meant to improve the quality of health and to complement the current lifestyle of hauling water or river ice during the winter.  The system is portable, because the community plans to move to a safe location. Every aspect of the unit is off-shelf  and can move with the home.

This project is within the US, specifically in Alaska, and it is our hope to expand to other Alaskan communities where piped systems are not economically feasible due to melting permafrost. However, MIT often helps communities outside the US borders. MIT alum can identify communities all over the world that have poor drinking water conditions and that are forced to relocated due to climate change issues such as flooding or rising sea levels. In the arctic, it's melting permafrost. In the south, it's likely storm surges and floods.


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