A sea change has occurred in global water management over the last two decades as previously unconventional technologies such as reverse osmosis membranes have been integrated into national supply networks. State‐led, highly politicised programmes of water resources development, characterised by large‐scale hydraulic infrastructure, centralised monopoly control and diplomatic negotiations, have been transformed in many regions by integrated systems supported by private engineering companies, constituting a new “technopolitical regime.” Desalination in particular has become an expedient solution not only to the chronic problem of water scarcity but protracted geopolitical disputes over shared infrastructure. Engaging with literature on geopolitical materialism, technopolitics and the hydraulic state, this paper will examine how desalination has been developed in Singapore to depoliticise the water supply network, bringing into relation a different constellation of actors and enabling an alternative form of techno‐diplomacy. In the 1990s, imported water from Malaysia became increasingly vulnerable due to a worsening of diplomatic relations, therefore Singapore began to leverage on reverse osmosis to circumvent antagonistic, politically charged negotiations. The water authority was subsequently plugged into global industry networks, technologically and institutionally reconfiguring the state through integrated management, corporate intermediaries and strategic nodality. By 2060, reverse osmosis technology is expected to provide 85% of water supply, co‐producing, it is argued, an alternative state ontology.