Life without water is unthinkable. To meet this very basic need, there are millions of people who struggle spending hours in a day to get a few pots full of water home. The men have to give up precious time they could have used to earn a better income and support their families. The women have to venture out walking for miles, carrying their little babies and water pots through the long arduous journey. Children have to give up their dreams and hope for an education while they fetch water for their homes.

According to a UN report, 95 million people in India lack access to safe drinking water. Thousands of villages have no water source within two miles.  India’s rural poor all too often have to settle for contaminated surface water from open wells, lakes, rivers and ponds, which is the primary cause for diseases like typhoid, bacillary dysentery and diarrhea.  These diseases contribute to the high mortality rate, especially among children and the aged.  According to UNICEF, Nearly one million children in India die of diarrhea each year directly as a result of drinking unsafe water.

Taking on the challenge of providing safe and potable drinking water, CBN India and OBI started its Living Waters Project in the year 1999. Through this project bore wells are made that provide safe drinking water to the people in need.

The states in India covered so far by this project include Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Kerala. However, this is only a small fraction of the overall need and thousands of villages in India still can only dream of potable safe drinking water.