Access to Water Service Modalities in Rural Alaska: Understanding Community Experiences and Perceptions

Households in rural Alaska rely on various water service modalities to meet daily needs. The level of service provided impacts end-users’ ability to access and benefit from their services. Furthermore, the degree of responsibility placed on end-users for the collection, storage, and maintenance of systems varies by water service modality. Centering end-users’ experiences and preferences in water management helps ensure that water infrastructure solutions align with community needs, priorities, and capabilities. To that end, we compare end-users’ experiences with different water service modalities and perceptions of service in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, one of the most underserved regions in the United States. We then explore associations between experiences and sociodemographic and geographic community characteristics to identify potential inequities or factors impacting end-users’ access to water. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of 41 semistructured interviews with 50 end-users residing in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Findings show that end-users frequently struggle with service disruptions and affordability, especially hauled water users. End-users also expressed aesthetic concerns related to the taste of chlorinated water, leading them to use potentially unsafe water service modalities for consumption. Better understanding of public perceptions allows us to center community needs when improving access to water services.