If you were to have asked people a century or more ago where they got their water, many of them would have said they got their water from a well.
The water was cleaner than from a river and it was more reliable. Water levels in a well might rise and fall, but by digging a well deep enough, you could always guarantee that the water would be there.
Some wells were extraordinarily deep. 100m deep wells were not uncommon. Digging such a well was a village activity.
