In today’s society, experts play an increasingly important role. We listen to experts who give advice, for example, on what we should or should not eat, how to exercise, how to invest our money and so on. It has been argued that ‘experts play an ever more influential role in defining and controlling fundamental social problems’. In both the public and the private sector, experts give advice on policy issues. Increasingly, scientific knowledge and scientific experts have become a vital component of the political policy process.  This is particularly apparent when highly complex environmental problems are dealt with. Scientists who possess scientific knowledge are important not only in identifying policies of risk management but also in the process of identifying risks. As this research deals partly with the role of experts (scientific) in the water negotiations it is imperative to discuss how science and politics are related.