When we had a rural property in New Zealand, our water came from a spring that was on our neighbour's property. There was a lien on the neighbour's deeds to that effect (dunno the legalese here, so don't shoot me over the words). This was an absolute right. Effectively we "owned" the access to that spring and the land over which the pipeline ran (about 15 metres from our boundary). It also meant that we could fence the spring itself off (which had been done by a previous owner). Since we did NOT get on with our neighbour, I'm glad there were no problems with the spring during the three years we were there!