Good point: you cannot be approved for construction without a water meter.
Edit: oh this just came to mind. A friend of mine related to me he had similar problems building a house and hired a lawyer to essentially bribe the relevant people.
You basically own the land on paper for the privilege of paying taxes but the government reserves fundamental legal rights to what you can do with land you own.
Laws against collecting rainwater are actually pretty common.
Yes, land ownership is pretty much an illusion.
Unless an aquifer is entirely inside your land, it makes plenty of sense not to let you make a well.