Huacaria's gravity flow water system was built in 1993 by a governmental development project. Engineers sourced the drinking water from a contaminated stream and directed it to a gravity flow distribution system. The system included filtration and disinfection tanks but the projected slow-sand filter was never installed, and chlorine was not added. There was no ongoing technical and maintenance training for the water committee due to funding cuts.

Seventeen outdoor taps were installed, however they were inexpensively built and concentrated in one small area that only serviced eight of Huacaria's twenty-two households. The remaining households gathered their water in buckets from nearby streams.

Of the physical outdoor tap stands built all are broken due to use of inexpensive building materials, and maintenance problems. The discharge from the taps passed through a drainage pipe, flowing over ground surfaces adjacent to houses and the school, creating muddy puddles and runoff streams of filthy, stagnant water. Several of the runoff streams would empty into larger streams, adding to the contamination levels of the surrounding water supplies. The highly contaminated larger rivers are frequently used by children and other habitants for bathing and washing

Extensive water testing carried out in 2003 demonstrated that all currently used water sources, local rivers and streams, including the taps, are contaminated by moderate to high levels of a type of harmful, fecal coliform bacteria. There is no question that this water system represented a serious health risk to children and families in Huacaria.