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As globalisation intensifies, what is the impact on the power of national governments to address water issues? The author notes how globalisation has reconfigured the state and its power vis-à-vis water in a number of ways:the state's territory is increasingly becoming part of a borderless world, water as a transborder issue redefines geography, community and powerstate sovereignty on water is increasingly eroded, new international rules and authorities govern water issuesstate autonomy on water issues is compromised, the state cannot act alone on water issues anymore, it has to consult with a number of various other actorsthe question of citizens' allegiance towards the state is challenge, new centres of public authority are created outside the state's jurisdiction and citizens are more likely to align themselves with a transnational social movement on a particular issuethe world is not anarchic, but rather a heterarchy, a system in which political authority is shared and divided between different layers of governance and in which various actors share in governingThis paper examines the globalisation of water issues, which relate to basic human needs and human health, food security, ecosystems, and national security. It addresses a number of emergent patterns in this process, including:the retreat of the statethe growth of transborder linksthe development and expansion of international lawincreased private sector involvement in global and national water regulation and managementthe spread of global social movements addressing water issuesthe increase in the number of global governance agencies involved in this fieldthe formulation of globally shared values with regard to waterThe paper concludes that, as the development and resource gap between developed and developing countries widen, an increase in the divergence between these economies is evident. The author claims that the answer does not lie in increasing the number of bigger water supply schemes, but in sharing water values on a global scale.States are increasingly dependent upon other state and non-state actors to ensure adequate quality and quantities of water. The emergence of an evolving global policy on water issues to address transborder water issues constitutes an emergent system of global governance reflecting increased political co-ordination among governments, intergovernmental organisations and transnational social movements.
