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SDWG Project Proposal: Arctic WASH (Draft 20 January 2016)
SDWG PROJECT PROPOSAL TEMPLATE1
Project Title:
Improving Health through Safe and
Affordable Access to Household Running
Water and Sewer (“Arctic WASH”)
Lead Countries:
United States/Kingdom of Denmark
Project leader(s):
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Tom Hennessy
U.S. Department of State, Joshua Glasser
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
Dennis Wagner
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
State of Alaska, Department of
Environmental Conservation, Bill Griffith
Department of Foreign Affairs, the
Government of Greenland, Uiloq Mulvad
Jessen
Technical University of Denmark, Pernille
Erland Jensen
Total Cost of Project:
Relationship to other AC Working
Groups:
Primary cost will be two conferences: one
in April 2016 in Sisimiut, Greenland and
the other in September 2016 in Anchorage,
AK – funding for both is currently being
arranged.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment
Programme (AMAP), focus on Human
Health. Jan Oyvind Odland, NO, Chair
Criteria for assessing SDWG project proposal submissions.
Objective of Project:
The content of this template has been drawn primarily from the ‘Procedures for submitting, approving
and managing project proposals in the Sustainable Development Working Group’ (Sweden 2006)
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SDWG Project Proposal: Arctic WASH (Draft 20 January 2016)
This project is focused on the challenge of Improving Health through Safe and
Affordable Access to Household Running Water and Sewer in Arctic and Sub-Arctic
communities. The project is to be implemented during the U.S. chairmanship. The
proposed project addresses four of the six SDWG’s thematic areas including Arctic
Human Health, Arctic Socio-Economic Issues, Energy and Arctic Communities, and
Adaptation to Climate Change.
The project will focus on three main areas:
 Promoting innovations in water and sewer technologies and service provision in
Arctic communities.
 Documenting the status of water and sewer service and associated health
outcomes in Arctic communities.
 Describing climate-related vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies related to
Arctic community water and sewer systems, including source water protection.
The key events associated with the project will be:
 An Artek conference in Sisimiut, Greenland in April 2016, entitled “Sanitation in
Cold Climate Regions”
 A two day circumpolar conference in Anchorage, Alaska in September 2016.
While we would ask that SDWG project partners attend these conferences, the work of
organizing them is being handled by respective steering committees in each locale. We
would also ask that SDWG project partners contribute towards the intellectual material
that will inform and report on each of the conferences, such as proposing presentations,
responding to questionnaires on the current state of Arctic and sub-Arctic WASH
services and health-related conditions, and contributing to conference proceedings
documents, as appropriate. The conferences are meant to be highly intersectoral in
nature, with content relevant to engineers, health professionals, researchers,
policymakers, and international sustainable development practitioners.
Each conference will also allow for showcasing of promising interventions, and for
considerations of next steps toward wider use of innovative technologies or practices. For
example, the Artek Conference emphasizes the challenges and solutions to sanitation
services in the Arctic context. This includes drinking water supply, treatment and
distribution, municipal and industrial wastewater services, including novel approaches
being considered to address the needs of communities without sewer service and the
environmental aspects of disposal.
Meanwhile, the September 2016 gathering in Anchorage, the State of Alaska will present
information about the Alaska Water and Sewer Challenge Project, a multi-year research
and development effort started in 2012. By the fall of 2016, three pilot systems will be
available to demonstrate at the conference, where the system developers could interact
with other experts from throughout the Arctic and Sub-Arctic region to gather input on
their ideas. The selected pilots involve partners from Canada as well as Alaska,
reinforcing the circumpolar nature of this work.
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SDWG Project Proposal: Arctic WASH (Draft 20 January 2016)
The formation of work groups (or enhancement of existing work groups) to continue
Arctic WASH via ongoing meetings – during and beyond the U.S. chairmanship – is
another intended deliverable of this project.
Background & Rationale:
While many Arctic communities do have access to running water and sewer services,
there are still many communities, throughout the Arctic and Sub-Arctic, where gaps
remain. Households without running water and sewer service are found in communities
that do not have any type of centralized system (piped or water and wastewater covered
haul infrastructure), but also in communities where the existing water/sewer
infrastructure does not include all homes. In addition, there are many homes connected
to centralized systems that are subject to potential source water protection issues and or
failure due to age, harsh weather conditions, climate effects such as melting permafrost,
and the high cost of operation.
The lack of sanitation infrastructure poses serious health threats. Recent health studies
conducted in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic have shown a direct correlation between clean
water in sufficient quantities and significant reductions in diseases and infections and
hospitalizations. Skin infections, respiratory tract infections and severe invasive bacterial
infections such as meningitis are more common in communities lacking water and sewer
service. Children are especially vulnerable; pneumonia hospitalization rates for rural
Alaska Native infants and children are the highest in the United States. These health
threats impose costs that impede socioeconomic development.
The capital cost of centralized sanitation systems in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic is
extremely high. Operational costs associated with centralized systems are also very
expensive and these costs are generally the responsibility of communities. Rural
households typically spend a much higher percentage of their income on water and sewer
user fees than urban households. Due to remoteness, harsh weather conditions, climate
change and the high cost of fuel, many rural Arctic and Sub-Arctic communities are hard
pressed to keep their systems running.
Because of the relatively high costs and technical challenges associated with centralized
water and sewer systems, many homes and communities throughout the Arctic and SubArctic will never receive sanitation infrastructure improvements unless decentralized
technologies are implemented. Likewise, the potential effects of climate change may
result in problems with source water, or complete failure of, existing centralized systems
heightening the need for less expensive technologies, or adaptations to existing
technologies.
Given these factors, a multi-year effort has begun in Alaska, involving U.S. federal
government agencies and the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC) to research and develop decentralized sanitation technologies that are less
expensive both to construct and operate in Arctic and Sub-Arctic climates. In summer
2014, six multi-disciplinary, international teams received funding to develop written
proposals for addressing specific goals associated with decentralized water and sewer
service in remote Arctic and Sub-Arctic communities. In November 2015, the state
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SDWG Project Proposal: Arctic WASH (Draft 20 January 2016)
funded three of these groups to develop and test prototype systems in a laboratory setting.
Prototypes will be up and running by the summer of 2016, thus allowing them to be
demonstrated at the proposed international conference. The primary goal of the Alaska
project is to identify ways to reduce the health and environmental risks associated with
the lack of basic water services and sanitation in remote Arctic and Sub-Arctic Alaskan
communities.
This same challenge exists in other Arctic nations across the circumpolar north. In other
Arctic states, such as Canada, Russia, and Greenland there are an estimated 1.7 million
homes that could potentially benefit from the research and sharing of information that
occurs as a result of this work – including regarding new approaches being pursued by
this project. In Finland, there is debate about the relative costs and benefits of different
levels of treating household sewage, and many aging systems are in need of upgrades and
replacement.
Each Arctic nation and remote community contends with the challenge of accessing and
providing safe, sustainable water and sewer service to residents in a different way.
Climate change could potentially increase these challenges drastically. Public health and
environmental regulations vary considerably, and in some countries there have been
allowances made in regulations in order to make running water and sewer more feasible.
Other countries have elected to relocate homes or subsidize the operational cost of water
and sewer systems. Regardless of how these challenges have been approached, there is a
need for the international Arctic community to work together on solutions that will cost
less to build and operate, while still protecting the environment and human health.
The goal of the project hereby proposed to the SDWG is not to change the course of
existing projects, but rather to catalyze further domestic and international work and
cooperation. The two conferences, their pre- and/or post-conference reports, and relevant
side meetings would promote the exchange of ideas regarding technical, governance, and
regulatory approaches and flexibility for safe sanitation systems which still safe guard the
environment and public health.
Traditional and Local Knowledge:
How will TLK be incorporated: The core scientific activity of this project is a survey
by the Arctic Health Human Experts Group (AHHEG) of WASH infrastructure, the
diseases related to insufficient household water quality or quantity, and climate-related
vulnerabilities of water/sewer service. In addition to distributing and getting input into
this survey through national and subnational governmental channels, we will also
distribute to TLK holders, via Permanent Participants of the AHHEG. TLK holders will
also be invited to participate in the WASH expo and symposium planned for Anchorage
in the summer of 2016. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Water
and Sewer Challenge requires community involvement in designing submissions and
evaluating the pilot systems which will ensure input from TLK holders.
How will the project benefit from TLK: TLK holders would be indispensable
respondents to such a survey, as they will frequently have a better sense of local
conditions than will health officials in national or sub-national capitals. They will also
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SDWG Project Proposal: Arctic WASH (Draft 20 January 2016)
have a good sense local climate impact on water/sewer services and whether WASHrelated diseases have been historically constant or recurring, or reflect new conditions in
Arctic communities. TLK collaborations in each of the Alaska Water and Sewer
Challenge projects is a requirement for the project design and testing, as it has been
recognized that the acceptability of any technology is critical to its sustained use.
Finally, TLK holders will have a strong perspective on whether the technologies
showcased at the expo are workable in their communities.
Activities and Outputs
 Key outputs:
o Circumpolar conferences in Sisimiut, Greenland and Anchorage, Alaska
o Conference proceedings
o Survey of circumpolar WASH infrastructure, culminating in a summary paper on
the status of water/sanitation services in Arctic/subarctic, related health conditions
and climate-vulnerabilities of water and sewer services.
o Potential continuation of discussions via ongoing side meetings of international
work groups established at the conference
o Report to ministers in time for the 2017 ministerial
Together, these outputs will yield benefits for communities across the Arctic that lack water
and sewerage services, as well as those where such services are challenged by financial
constraints or climate change impacts. This project addresses the core focus of the SDWG,
by contributing to healthier communities that are more resilient to climate change and
financially more secure. Other SDWG members and observers can contribute to the success
of this project by ensuring robust participation in the circumpolar conference, as well as the
pre- and post-conference activities. Because conditions related to WASH in remote or coldweather communities exist in many regions, lessons learned from the Arctic and Sub-Arctic
communities could have widespread value. Both in-kind contributions of expertise and
financial contributions are warmly welcomed.
Anticipated Outcomes

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

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Improved understanding of how human health benefits from increased provision of
running water and sewer at home.
Enhanced international participation for Arctic WASH activities.
Publicity about these challenges will help to inform policy makers, non-government
organizations, and the private sector, which in turn, could help in funding future
efforts.
Showcase innovations and ideas.
Discussion of the potential effects of climate change on Arctic and Sub-Arctic
sanitation infrastructure.
Exchange of ideas regarding regulatory approaches and flexibility toward small
community public health infrastructure.
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SDWG Project Proposal: Arctic WASH (Draft 20 January 2016)
Timetable and Project Completion for the Anchorage conference (a more detailed
work plan will be drafted with the relevant partners once the AC SDWG has
considered this project and the full set of stakeholders is known)
Task
Special session on Arctic WASH at the International
Congress on Circumpolar Health, Oulu, Finland
Establish an international planning group; planning
process moves forward
Deadline
June 2015 (concluded)
Sisimiut conference held
Pre-conference Anchorage summary published (~90 days
prior to conference)
Circumpolar conference held in Anchorage, Alaska
Conference proceedings
Continuation of international work groups established
during the circumpolar conference
Report to Arctic Council ministers
April 2016
Summer 2016
Winter 2015-16
September 2016
Late 2016
Late 2016
Spring 2017
Communications
Health experts, engineers, researchers, manufacturers and vendors will be invited to the
conferences for a discussion on challenges and solutions associated with making running
water and sewer in small Arctic and Sub-Arctic communities safe, affordable and
sustainable. A comparison of the different governance and regulatory frameworks and
approaches utilized by Arctic nations will be discussed together with problems and
solutions regarding preventing and adapting to the potential impact of climate change on
sanitation infrastructure in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic.
Conference proceedings will be disseminated among Arctic and Sub-Arctic residents and
the Arctic Council community in the fall of 2016 and beyond.
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