Andean water policies and issues are increasingly framed in neoliberal terms. This paper shows that this terminology is ill suited for understanding actual water realities, as well as for visualizing the harmful effects of neo iberal water reforms on local and indigenous water rights collectives. The latter, however, do not remain silent but fiercely defend their common property water resources, rules and authorities. They actively question the universalistic pretensions of neoliberal policies that claim to be based on natural laws and objective truths. A contextualized rights approach is proposed as an alternative framework, allowing the recognition of water as a politically contested resource.
