The water committees of the southern region of Cochabamba, Bolivia's fourth largest city, are the epitome of Bolivian forms of autonomy and horizontalism. Still an active network today, these organizations became visible after the "water war" of 2000, when community mobilization on a mass scale halted a state-sponsored attempt to privatize Cochabamba's water supply. One of the results of the water war mobilization was the increase in visibility of the network of committees in Cochabamba, which has deepened its level of organization across the city since its victory in 2000. While found throughout the urban periphery, the committees are primarily concentrated in the southern zone of the city. The southern zone is comprised of six districts and half the population of the city -- more than two thousand inhabitants, most of whom are the population segment most affected by the inefficacy of the public water company, SEMAPA.
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