In the arid regions of western Rajasthan, the traditional water harvesting systems managed by the local communities are being replaced either by public piped tap connections or by private water vendors. This process has brought about the commercialization of water where villagers are now paying to buy drinking water from private water tankers, hitherto unknown to this waterscape. With evidence gathered from primary fieldwork in the villages of western Rajasthan, this study investigates the phenomenon of the adoption of tanker water technology and the simultaneous commercialization of water through a lens of the political economy framework. It addresses the issue of access to water technology as a process of sociocultural change where there is a gradual transformation of village solidarity-based water resource management and conservation systems to commercialized “pay as you use” water systems. The study finds that tanker water technology is leading to intragender, intra-caste, and intervillage socioecological scarcity exuberated by the existing social hierarchy and economic disparities. This transformation in the water transaction is thus creating a complex waterscape in a heterogeneous rural society giving rise to differential access to water.