Agricultural water
When we first came to the Pinoso area, the locals were having a field day selling the semi-abandoned houses that their grandparents had left them: basically stone-built sheds with almost no modern conveniences, uncared for at the end of some dusty track and surrounded by half-abandoned terraces and plots of land. Lots of the houses had neither electricity nor running water. We Britons were an easy mark. We seemed to be willing to hand over thick wads of cash for houses that the locals considered more of a burden than a welcome gift, and, when we'd bought the house, we employed their cousin or their uncle to do it up. Electricity and water were deal-breakers for many houses at the time. Britons just expected that water would come out of taps and that there would be somewhere to plug in the fridge and the telly. One saving grace for many of these houses was that they had "agricultural water" – water designed for watering crops rather than drinking, but which had been extend...