Water management systems enable the collection, storage and distribution of rainfall and runoff for agricultural and domestic use in water-scarce regions. Numerous such techniques have been established in the past that were adapted to particular natural settings and cultural conditions. They change over time. Hence, water management systems are deeply inscribed into the landscape and into the societies utilizing them. Over the centuries, regionally specific governance structures developed, including legal frameworks and particular rituals for the systems’ use and maintenance. Until today the use of such water management systems is often sustained by a broad local knowledge base. Consequently, these systems represent a substantial part of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

In the following we will give some insights into traditional techniques related to the management of tanks, which have been preserved until the present.