In Nicaragua, where grave problems in the water sector already threaten the sustainability of water as a public resource, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) promote water privatization which will make it even more difficult for all Nicaraguans, but mostly the poorest among them, to obtain clean water at affordable rates.

Read the analysis of the 1999 IDB loan to Nicaragua and how the IMF imposes conditions to privatize water.

Civil society opposes these policies. Read the statement on the IMF conditions from the Nicaragua Consumer's Network.

To understand some of the recent background to the water rights issues in Nicaragua read the following:

• Nicaragua Update April 2004
• Nicaragua Update January 2005