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In the last decade, some original forms of collaboration between public authorities and low-income communities have been developed in Venezuela to improve access to drinking water in illegal settlements. These new forms of service co-production are progressively replacing informal practices in accessing water and, at the same time, changing the way residents appropriate their settlement. The paper, based on recent studies about these current forms of citizen participation in water provision as well as two case studies from the Caracas Southern periphery, aims to show how the move from informal practices in accessing water to existing forms of service co-production collaborate on the one hand in the re-composition of the settlement’s space, and on the other, contribute to highlighting possible shortcomings in participatory democracy in Venezuela.