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This article seeks to review the evolution of water supply and purification services in Indian cities during the 1990s, when policies of decentralisation and liberalisation came into force. Our hypothesis is that the weakness of the public sector and the strategies created by users to make up for the Iack of reliable water supply accelerated changes in this sector. The emergence of new water supply markets, the role of local entrepreneurs and users’ commitment to change lie at the heart of these transformations, however limited to a number of cities. Here, we analyse these changes and seek to understand their impact on improvements in access to services, coordination and regulation of the sector, and more generally, possible ways of achieving public sector reform. The article draws on a synthesis of field research carried out in a number of cities and is based on several quantitative and qualitative surveys.