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This research inquiries the complex interactions between water infrastructure and people by analysing a case study of a decentralized rainwater harvesting system in the Andean semi-arid region of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Water infrastructure tends to be perceived as stabilized, 'blackboxed' and invulnerable to change and its complex and multi-dimensional interactions with the society are often overlooked. On the other hand, there is an increasing understanding to conceive it as part of socio-technical systems that consist of material artefacts as well as environmental features, social and cultural norms, evolving knowledge and know-how and embedded governance structures that are contingent in time and space. One of the main challenges associated with decentralized rainwater harvesting interventions refers to their sustainability, their capacity to deliver water and water-related benefits over time. According to development orthodoxy, participation and sense of ownership are a paramount aspects for granting sustainability since they inform users’ willingness to operate, use, contribute to and maintain their water systems in the long term. Nonetheless, there is little empirical evidence on how participation and sense of ownership are interlinked and whether they increase sustainability . In this research, empirical attention is dedicated to how people interact and tinker with a new infrastructure negotiating notions and outcomes of ‘hydraulic property relation’. The concept refers to the interdependent set of beliefs, rules, norms and procedures established between people and water infrastructures in community-based and users-managed systems that delineate individual and collective rights and responsibilities. It can be argued that a functioning water infrastructure always relay on relations of hydraulic property. Shared rules-in-use for operating and maintaining the system, distributing water, making decisions on who can use water, for what purpose and how, have to be ne