"AKIACHAK, Alaska — Sanitation workers Thomas Noatak and Joseph Moses start every workday riding a four-wheeler along the muddy roads of this small Yup’ik village on southwestern Alaska’s vast Kuskokwim River, looking for human waste.
They’re checking honey bucket bins — large steel containers where residents dump their waste at neighborhood collection points. When they find a bin full enough to warrant a trip to the dump site just outside town, they load it up and haul it nearly a mile over deeply potholed and rutted streets, hoping to do it without splashing.
Many Alaska villages don’t have running water and flushing toilets. Instead of using a bathroom, people retire to a room in a house, pull a curtain and use a honey bucket — typically a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat on top and a plastic bag inside. Instead of showers, they rely on steam baths or sponge baths. Water for drinking and washing has to be hauled in."
Mark Thiessen and Tom Brenner report for the Associated Press September 8, 2023.
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