In the 1960s, the Mexico-Guatemala border area was colonized by many landless farmers. Indian and mixed-race populations have settled there, either of their own accord or with the support of the state. Today, export products such as oil palm contaminate the groundwater. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in one of the pioneer villages in Nuevo San Juan Chamula, this article examines how farming populations manage wastewater. In the absence of state intervention and irrespective of the habitual religious (Protestant-Catholic) and political divides, populations are organizing themselves to produce drinking water. In a context of syncretic practices in which rituals dedicated to the Tzotzil deities (the owners of the springs), are combined with Catholic worship, water is first and foremost the property of the gods, it being the duty of humans to maintain, share, and celebrate the springs. The article analyzes villagers’ practices and conceptions of water, particularly those held by the Tzotzil and by the Presbyterian Church.