ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the ability of megacities to provide water and sanitary services, namely the ability of governments or other management arrangements to reallocate water from current or traditional uses to meet the needs of the megacities and the extent to which various legal regimes facilitate or impede such reallocations. Laws governing the allocation of water are found around the world in local customs and regulations, national legislation, regional agreements, and global treaties, together creating a complex legal governance framework for water. International water law is found in numerous treaties, including the UN convention on the Law of Non-Navigational uses of International Watercourses, the reach of which is broader than the convention both in the sense of covering more issues and in the sense of extending to more countries. Rights to use water are often characterized as a kind of property, which allows a different typology: common property, private property and public property.
