libertarian transitional solutions for water rights

Economics Economics Questions
1

Not sure if my subject heading is correct, but I have been doing some searches for essays or accounts of the libertarian approach to water use and rights. Not much luck so far for the problem at hand.

I get the gist of the libertarian appraoch by privatizing water rights, but I am still stumped as to how a county would start the process to change from the current sloppy and corrupt system to one that respects property rights and enables users access to water.

To be more specific, the example is where the cities are pumping down the qround water levels such that adjacent land owners need to dig new wells for water. In some instances, with the lowering ground water levels, some landowners no longer have water and they have to truck it in. Of course the whole story is more complex, but I am very curious how a libertarian approach would solve this problem.

I can elaborate more, but I think this may be good enough for a start. Your replies are appreciated.

2

The problem seems to be that multiple people are drawing water from the same supply. There’s no miracle solution here. There can only be one owner for the supply.

3

So the miracle perhaps is getting from point A to that incredible point of a single owner - thus my question. Notwithstanding that the libertarian approach for this particluar problem may be ultimately inadequate.