As for wells, the person who digs one falls into one of three situations.
The first is that he digs it for public use, in which case its water is shared, and the person who dug it has the same right to it as everyone else. ʿUthmān, may Allah be pleased with him, endowed the Rūmah Well, and he would draw water from it with his bucket alongside the people, sharing in its water. If the water is abundant enough for drinking and watering crops, it may be used for both. If it is insufficient for these two purposes, watering animals has priority over watering crops, while humans and livestock share the water. If it is insufficient for both of them, humans have a greater right to its water than livestock.
The second situation is that he digs it to benefit from its water personally. For example, when the Bedouins move to a region and dig a well there for themselves and their livestock to drink from, they have the greatest right to its water as long as they remain there in their encampment. They must make any surplus water available to those seeking drinking water, but not for other purposes. Once they depart, the well becomes public: it is private at the outset and public thereafter. If they return to it after having departed, they and others have equal rights to it, and whoever reaches it first has priority.
Aḥmad said, in the narration of Ḥarb, concerning a man who reached the outlets of the ʿUtaybah irrigation channels first, after which another man went and reached one of the channel outlets upstream or downstream: The first man said, “You may not do that, because I reached the source of the channel first.” Aḥmad replied: “If it is not owned by anyone, each person is entitled to whatever he reaches first.”
The third situation is that he digs it for himself as private property. Until his digging reaches and brings out its water, his ownership of it is not established. Aḥmad said, in the narration of Ḥarb: “If a man digs a well but does not reach the water, this does not constitute development.” Thus, he explicitly stated that the well does not become his property merely by digging it. Once he brings out its water, his ownership is established, since the development is then complete—unless the well requires lining, in which case lining it is part of the completion of its development and the establishment of ownership.
He then becomes the owner of the well and its protected zone, which is twenty-five cubits, whether it is a draw-well from which water is lifted by a draft animal or a livestock-watering well, dug for animals to drink. If he reaches first a well that had been dug by unbelievers, it becomes his property by virtue of his being the first to reach it, together with its protected zone, which is fifty cubits. Aḥmad expressly stated this measurement in the narration of Ḥarb, saying: “Whoever digs a well is entitled to twenty-five cubits around it as its protected zone; an ancient well has fifty cubits, and that is one that has long existed.” He was asked, “What about a well for crops?” He replied: “I do not know about that. Three hundred has been narrated, but they differed.”