Synthesis and Perspectives

Water management is a vital part of our day-to-day needs regardless of national, political, cultural and societal structures. However, today in the northern and arctic communities, across all nationalities, water accessibility and waste water treatment are considered an even larger challenge compared with the available standards developed for middle latitude communities. Small arctic settlements are largely scattered over a vast area and are often isolated, preventing them of communicating with other locations during large parts of the year. Transportation of goods is limited and very expensive, leading to high subsistence costs compared to the more densely populated regions of our globe. Generally, all required infrastructures and technological solutions in the settlements need to be established and maintained throughout the year. Thus, technological solutions in isolated Arctic communities are often not state-of-the art and usually require strong individual involvement on a household-to-household level. The lack of automated supply systems both for clean water accessibility, as well as suitable treatment of used water (sewage and brown water), is often associated with potential hygienic and other health associated consequences on both an individual and a community level in the north. Therefore, new sanitation strategies adapted to the environmental and local needs of Arctic communities must be developed and applied.