ABSTRACT
Geographers and politicians argue over definitions of development, over maps of where it has occurred, is occurring and will occur and over rates of development. However, virtually all definitions imply some form of ‘cultural colonialism’ by revealing that development is a process and pattern laid down immutably by the ‘First World’ (Bissio, 1988). We thus need to be aware of ‘settler cultures’ and their impact on water management and of the humidtemperate climate perspective being woefully, naively applied to tropical and semi-arid developing areas. The trade system directed by world capitalism (a significant part of globalisation) seems to offer international homogeneity; in fact, the field of water projects remains characterised by a ‘humid hegemony’ of finance and technology transfer. It is useful, therefore, to divide an international ‘tour’ of land, water and development into two chapters, split by development, although there are also interesting contrasts in both land and water as we ‘travel’.
