That's a lot of questions and insufficient detail. How is the water transported? Do the source and/or the target sites need to have apparatus present? Can water anywhere be transported anywhere at anyone’s whim at any time? Can salt water be transformed to fresh water by this means? How much water can be transported per day? (Are we talking hose pipe, small stream, large river, Amazonian river, cubic kilometres per day or more?) What is the energy cost of the transportation? Who can transport the water just Governments? Companies? Private individuals?

Define "very low cost" -- as you can load tank vessels (trucks, railcars, barges, boats) up with water (potable or nonpotable) just as easily as you can load them with any other liquid commodity.

This question is way too broad. Facinating, but too broad. I completely agree with both Slarty and Shalvenay in that there is far, far too little information about the relevant technology. While it's unlikely to have any impact on Alaska (U.S.A.), it would have huge ramifications on the U.S. southwest and could topple whole governments in Africa --- depending on what it actually is, how it actually works, etc. (Kiltannen looks kinda Finnish, is it?)

@Slarty The water is transported by proprietary technology - with apparatus at both transmition and receiving ends. The tech is owned as a trade secret by a single company with altruistic goals of solving world problems of water & food shortage. The tech can take any source of water and both purify & transmit it in one operation. SO - yes it can have salt water as the source. Cubic kilometers per hour could conceivably be transmitted - assuming a large enough source. The energy cost is negligible - I am positing parallel tech that provides very low cost energy. That is a whole nother topic!

Where are you getting the water from? That would be the biggest political problem. I suspect that you are using hydrogen and oxygen to create it. Yes?

What is the mechanism of transport? Pipeline is tricky, any land transport would require rights of transit across intervening countries. Same with air rights. Each country would weigh in on levees to cross their land. Pipelines always face fierce opposition. You need to clarify before any answer can be given.

@JBH I have edited the main question to Narrow the focus to negative political opposition. I have also edited into the Main question a description of the Tech itself - and proposed the source of water. Hoping you will all agree it is now no longer too broad and can be re-opened.

This is a question I can now answer. I'm in, reopn vote cast.

@kiltannen Quick question: what do you want here? Do you want there to be conflict? Will that add a desired flavour to your fictional setting? Because this can either be entirely conflict free, or fraught with heavy conflicts, all depending on what you as the author want.

Does your country not have centralised water purification and distribution? I'm not sure what you're after here.

It would seem the easiest option would be massive sea based plants around the coast with power infrastructure, nuclear, wind or gas turbine and the capacity to pump water in unimaginable quantities this truly would green the deserts of earth.

I am not asking for how to accomplish this - I have the tech concept worked out. Effectively Puppeteer Stepping disks (As stated in the question) I am specifically interested in any and all ideas about what the nature of opposition to this will be. What I want to focus on is the positive story of providing water everywhere it is needed - but I'd like some insight into what will go wrong politically. Where will the expected opposition come from? How violent will that opposition be? Will it be governments - Or environmentalists?

@kiltannen I ask again, read carefully please: what do you want to happen?. Depending on how this is tailored, you can have anything happen... from perfectly peaceful to a hot World War III. So unless you want this question closed again I suggest that you specify what you want because otherwise this question is much too broad.

You said the energy requirements are very low - how low? Can you "loop" water through the Hoover Dam, for example, creating perpetual motion?

@MichaelK My bad for not editing into the question what I want. I've done that now. Hopefully this is clear enough for you, I am really likeing the ideas that are flowing here - and would hate to see my question closed again ;)