To Dig a Well (in Siberia) : Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History, Summer 2017, no. 13: To Dig a Well (in Siberia)

In 1947, inhabitants of Yakutsk gained access to potable groundwater from below the permafrost layer for the first time. Owing to the presence of permafrost, Yakutsk had survived on limited water resources for centuries. Frozen earth cast doubt on the availability of groundwater and made exploratory...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chu, Pey-Yi
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany 2017
Subjects:
population
infrastructure
resources
diseases
engineering
permafrost
public health
rivers
sanitation
science
geology
water
water pollution
Yakutsk
Siberia
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.5282/rcc/7896
http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/7896/
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Summary:In 1947, inhabitants of Yakutsk gained access to potable groundwater from below the permafrost layer for the first time. Owing to the presence of permafrost, Yakutsk had survived on limited water resources for centuries. Frozen earth cast doubt on the availability of groundwater and made exploratory digging difficult. The absence of wells had deleterious consequences for the health of the settled population. In the twentieth century, historical circumstances arose that redoubled efforts to develop sanitation infrastructure in Yakutsk. Establishing a reliable source of clean water in Yakutsk was a process of trial and error, with implications for environmental adaptation today.

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