Since the Mesopotamian hydrotechnologists, who specialised in irrigation systems, water has been harnessed for many different purposes (such as mills, hydraulic hammers, etc.). The biggest move of disciplining waters though started in the nineteenth century with straightening the rivers, draining swamps and moors and setting up a covering structure of water pipes. Until the end of the eighteenth century water was considered to be a manifestation of divine grace, of life and of purification and healing.  But from then on, water was just water, HO2, and till today the story of water concentrates on purification in a chemical sense. Water is being polluted, becomes scarce and ‘withdraws’ from the biosphere, while at the same time more and more land is flooded due to the melting of the polar ice sheets. This is the situation in which ‘The Network of Dissident Women’ has tried to follow the double path of water on its own land in the valley along the Pulkau – the dirtiest river in Lower Austria – by setting up practical hypotheses: exploring and mapping underground waters with rods, drilling for water pipes and creating ponds and holy water holes, while at the same time carrying out reforestation and humus cultivation projects.