Introduction

During the last decades water has increasingly become a critical issue in global and local governance, raising questions about human and environmental security and about states' and individuals' right to freshwater and to development. Recently, after 15 years of debate, the United Nations assembly agreed to define access to clean water as a human right (UN 2010a).

The challenges in global water governance include a shrinking availability of water per capita due to pollution, population growth, urbanization and industrialization, a problem that is further amplified by the unpredictability of climate change. At the same time there is an urgent need to reduce the proportion of people living without access to safe drinking water. Water issues have increasingly been recognized as a global concern, and a consensus has emerged for a more conservationist approach in water management and for changing our perceptions and handling of water resources. These efforts are developed under the heading ‘Integrated Water Resource Management’ (IWRM) and are set to promote a management of water that is more efficient, equitable and sustainable – values that constitute the core of IWRM.

This chapter aims to discuss global water issues in relation to ‘development’, ‘security’, and the ‘security-development nexus’ and to explore, through a biopolitical lens, how water management in an IWRM regime can be understood as a technique of governing subjects, life and lifestyles. To illuminate this, I will draw on research findings from the eThekwini municipality in South Africa.