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PrayerPoint archive

The cobalt skies of Bolivia’s altiplano rarely yield rain. Storms pass over this vast, arid plain in the heart of the Andes Mountains only two months a year, making clean water a scarce resource.

The lack of water creates a tremendous burden for people like Apolinar Blanco Condori. Twice a day, the 22-year-old man would journey to a distant source to gather water for his wife and newborn daughter, Daysi Dina.

“The work is hard, and my arms would hurt and tremble the whole time,” he said. “I could only get enough to cook and drink, but not enough to bathe and wash clothes.”

Apolinar knew his daughter was at risk each time she drank the untreated water. Diarrhea caused by the bacteria in dirty water is the leading cause of malnutrition among children in the altiplano.

Across the region, Samaritan’s Purse is helping residents like Apolinar by providing the materials and training necessary to construct wells closer to home. Recipients, along with friends, relatives, and neighbors, come together to supply the manpower.

Apolinar’s life has changed dramatically in the few months since Samaritan's Purse provided a well. His family now has more than enough water for cooking, drinking, bathing, and washing, and his sheep, cows, and donkeys have a consistent source of water. The four hours he used to devote to carrying water are now spent on cultivating the family’s garden and caring for his animals. He also has time to play with Daysi, who is growing healthy and strong.

Samaritan’s Purse provides clean water for thousands of people around the world through a wide range of projects.

Our work spans from the high plains of Bolivia to the rice paddies of Cambodia, and includes fresh-water wells and filters that remove contaminants from untreated water sources.

When disasters strike around the world, our teams quickly install high-capacity community filters to prevent illness and disease.

Some of our water projects are as simple as fencing springs in Vietnam to keep animals from contaminating the water. Others are more specialized, like our work in Iraq, where Samaritan’s Purse is installing a water system in a medical facility.

Our water projects are accompanied by hygiene and sanitation training, which further contribute to the overall health of a community.

Clean water doesn’t only benefit an individual or family. It has broad implications—a ripple effect that spans communities and regions.

Nations are strengthened when lives are spared from deadly waterborne diseases like dysentery, cholera, typhoid, and meningitis. Populations become more educated when children no longer have to spend their days fetching water and can enroll in school.

Communities thrive when families rise above poverty, because they no longer spend their meager funds purchasing a few gallons of clean water.

In the altiplano, Samaritan’s Purse is constructing more than 100 wells. There has been an outpouring of God’s grace as we supply water to people like Apolinar and his family. Last year, more than 1,400 men, women, and children in these remote communities proclaimed Jesus Christ as their Savior.

For many, the work of Samaritan’s Purse is a physical illustration of the spiritual truth found in John 4:14: “But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”