I understood when I was just a child that without water, everything dies. I didn't understand until much later that no one "owns" water. It might rise on your property, but it just passes through. You can use it, and abuse it, but it is not yours to own. It is part of the global commons, not "property" but part of our life support system.
Marq De Villiers (2001). “Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource”, p.14, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt