Almost half of Nicaragua's population is under the age of fifteen, and they are growing restless. It has been nearly thirty years since the revolution against the dictatorial Somoza family in 1979. The victorious Sandinistas promised the people of Nicaragua political and economic power, agrarian reform, social justice, and independence from foreign powers. Carlos Fonseca, one of the three founders of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN), vowed, "In Nicaragua, no peasant will be without land, nor land without people to work it." The dream of nurturing the country's rich land into a sovereign Eden was an imminent reality.

Today, three million Nicaraguans in a total population of five million live in poverty, making Nicaragua one of the poorest nations in the Western hemisphere. Plagued by civil war, corruption, U.S. military intervention, and natural disasters like Hurricane Mitch, Nicaragua's economy has collapsed. Aid has been given but not without stipulations. For every dollar now spent on health care, Nicaragua must spend five on debt service payments. The weight of debt has shackled any dreams of progress.

In 2004, Nicaragua's outstanding debt of $6.7 billion qualified it for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative implemented eight years ago by the IMF and World Bank. The initiative provided $4.5 billion of debt relief but also forced Nicaragua to partake in Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). These programs are designed to help poor countries reactivate their economies. To make debt payments, nations must prioritize exports. For Nicaragua, a country where one in three children is malnourished, this means that the people must grow cash crops, sell off natural resources, and privatize public goods. Water, a fundamental public commodity, has become the new currency for restitution of debt. The people of Nicaragua need to defend their water rights against international forces, rather than submit to a new form of slavery. The promises of the revolution have long been due; Nicaragua wants what it is owed.

In May 2000, Fortune magazine predicted that, "Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century: the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations." The United States projects that by 2020 it will be importing eighteen percent of its fresh water from Latin America, much of it coming from Nicaragua. Transnational corporations are insensitively rushing to invest in the burgeoning market of water, when only one third of the population has access to clean drinking water.