When Sour Water Is Your Only Option

Apolinaria, her husband, and two children are part of a Quechua people group who live high in the Andes mountains of Peru. Their living conditions are almost desert like. Finding clean water to drink is among their greatest challenges. "Here the water is not good,” Apolinaria told us. “It is salty and seems to have limescale. When I cook with it, the food turns yellow. And when we drink it, the water makes our stomach sick and gives us diarrhea.” 

The water they use during the three-month “rainy season” comes from a shallow hole in the ground, which they dug. That collects rainwater and runoff. Eight-year-old, Angie, knows that the water is dangerous. “When I drank the water it tasted sour. It made me sick, and it lasted for days. I got bad stomach pains.”     

During dry season they carry water an hour each way from the closest town. Sometimes the water runs out before Apolinaria can even collect a single bucket full. She sometimes returns home empty handed.  
 
When Operation Blessing arrived on the scene, we knew the water was unsuitable for human consumption. “I was excited when they said they were going to give us clean water!” declared Angie.   

To fix the problem, we first found a new underground spring as a new water source. Then we built a 1,300-gallon storage tank with a chlorination system to purify the water. Finally, we ran pipes to every one of the 28 homes in the community, including Angie’s. “I am happy because we have clean water,” said a happy Angie. “We use it to drink, cook, and wash dishes.”    

Apolinaria told us that her children are no longer getting sick from drinking bad water. “I'm very happy, we are able to bathe and Angie will be able to drink as much water as she wants, thanks to Operation Blessing!”  

Angie smiled, having said, "Thank you very much to the people who gave us clean water!"