Drawing out the import of a localized social ontology of water, this paper carefully considers the ways in which the regional waterscape, associated topography, underground pathways and meteorological phenomena are locally interpreted and interacted with. It argues that such processes are critical to local social and political identity formation and integration, as well as enabling insight into power and local governance configurations across time and space. In these complex engagements between people, ancestral spirits and place, the actual and metaphorical fluidity of movement with and through water demonstrates the multiple life-giving qualities of springs and the dependencies of people on them.

Chapter from book 'Water Politics and Spiritual Ecology: Custom, Environmental Governance and Development'