ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the number of events that loosely make up part of the piecemeal, both informal and formal, global water governance regime. With water rising on the political agenda nationally and internationally alike, the future for global water governance appears to be on a trajectory of continued development and transformation. It could be said that there has been exponential growth of the number of events and organisations that address global water issues. The first water-related intergovernmental meeting took place in Paris in 1851, known as the International Sanitary Conference, which began a series of 14 conferences on the subject that occurred at irregular intervals until 1938 and the beginning of World War II. The United Nations Water Conference, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, from 14–25 March 1977, was the first global water meeting of its kind, with participants from a high policy-making level, and helped focus attention exclusively on water for the first time.
