The growing globalization and the dominance of neo-liberal capitalism have permeated in public policies in both industrialized and developing countries. This has led to the current dominant water governance language and logic being deeply infused with neoliberalism. This thesis aims to understand whether the changing nature and content of property rights in water as part of the ongoing water governance reforms support or undermine the efforts of states to allocate and reallocate water. It examines the organisation of water ‘property’ rights in laws, and more specifically, it studies the role of policy instruments, including water use permits and investor-state contracts between foreign investors and host states and its potential effects on water allocation and reallocation. It does so by focusing on Africa and Asia more broadly, with two case studies in South Africa and India. The challenge for developing countries is that they are struggling with the legacy of property rights regimes created in the colonial era. As they attempt to dismantle that, they are creating a new quasi-property right regime.