An emerging logic of urban water management, Cochabamba, Bolivia

This paper examines the emergence of a new logic of water management in dev eloping cities. We argue that water provision is characterised by two large ly disconnected circuits of water supply. Formally organised distribution n etworks provide a publicly subsidised service to higher-income users, while an informal system of water vendors provides a more expensive supply to ma rginalised communities. A new style of water management is now challenging the productionist logic that has created and maintained these dual networks . The case study of water privatisation in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, illustrates how this emerging logic is reconfiguring the management of urb an water networks with a shift from large supply options towards greater co nsideration of user needs and extension of the network to unconnected commu nities. The productionist logic is in a period of profound transition as ef forts are being made to mesh together more effectively the formal and infor mal networks. While: this process is highly contested, many of the central assumptions of the productionist logic are challenged and new opportunities for a more socially inclusionary and environmentally sensitive style of wa ter management are emerging.