The literature on local services has focused on the e§ects of privatization and, if anything, has compared the e§ects of private and mixed public-private systems versus public provision. However, alternative forms of provision such as cooperatives, which can be very prevalent in many developing countries, have been completely ignored. In this paper, we investigate the e§ects of communal water provison (ComitÈs Vecinales and Juntas Administrativas de Servicios de Saneamiento) on child health in Peru. Us- ing detailed survey data at the household- and child-level for the years 2006-2010, we exploit the cross-section variability to assess the di§erential impact of this form of pro- vision. Despite controlling for a wide range of household and local characteristics, the municipalities served by communal organizations are more likely to have poorer health indicators, what would result in a downward bias on the absolute magnitude of the e§ect of cooperatives. We rely on an instrumental variable strategy to deal with this potential endogeneity problem, and use the personnel resources and the administrative urban/rural classiÖcation of the municipalities as instruments for the provision type. The results show a negative and signiÖcant e§ect of comunal water provision on diarrhea among under-Öve year old children.