7. Water Resource Development and the Environment in the 20th Century: First the Taking, then the Putting Back

The purpose of this paper is to show how perspectives have shifted in the past century from the certainties of taking freshwater from the environment to produce goods and services, to a pervasive uncertainty because the environment has been degraded by too much development. The study will first trace the intellectual and philosophical inspiration, which led to the hydraulic mission approach. Second, it will outline the discursive politics, which reversed the trend in the North. The analysis will also demonstrate why the hydraulic mission is still prominent in the South, despite the advocacy of the green social movement and major international financial agencies. The role of risk awareness and the changes in such awareness will be shown to be central to any analysis of how water policy-making has been and will be made.