Water and Politics

In the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, access to potable water has been a long-standing problem. Indeed, almost half of Cochabamba's residents do not have access to the public system of potable water distribution. The panorama is even worse in the poorest area of the city, the Southern Zone (Zona Sur), where only 22% of people have access to that system. In the neighbourhoods where the state does not provide its citizens with access to potable water, people must find their own mechanisms to get access to this resource. This investigation studies the political practices people employ to obtain access to water in one of these neighbourhoods.