Book excerpt: Lack of access to clean water is an urgent problem in developing countries, including Vietnam. This book investigates the 'everyday politics' of domestic water supply and sanitation in the rural Mekong Delta. It offers new theoretical perspectives on policy-making in Vietnam, as well as the cultural aspects of globalization. The book shows that policy practices have to be understood as mechanisms for the (re-)production of a political order, manifest in the cultural and social properties of the Vietnamese state. It provides a critical perspective on donor support to Vietnamese water policy and practice. (Series: ZEF Development Studies - Vol. 20)