Use water as a process input, then verify availability in your current build.

Direct answer

Water is a contact stage in the captured starter route.

The third-party starter guide describes moving mined dirt into water to create wet sand before it reaches a shaker. This is COMMUNITY guidance for a reviewed Early Access build, not a complete fluid-system specification.

Factory role

Keep water contact observable before automating it.

1. Use a small, visible water contact stage for the dirt-to-wet-sand test.
2. Confirm the wet-sand result reaches the next process stage.
3. Increase input only after the water edge, transfer, and output remain observable.

COMMUNITY workflow · no throughput or reservoir claim.

Community reports

There is a concrete mod lead—but it is not a vanilla exploit proof.

Two frozen COMMUNITY leads answer the route question without pretending they are the same thing:

1. Vanilla scarcity report. A Steam discussion says pumps left small water and steam patches behind and that the player eventually ran out of water and red sand on the demo map. That supports a scarcity check, not duplication.
2. Modded unlimited-water lead. The Fluxloader catalog lists Old World Cistern by Flapjackal, with scripts by Shinaidra, version 2.0.1, and the tags map and unlimitedwater. Treat it as a community mod route to inspect for your current build—not as evidence that vanilla Sandustry has an infinite-water recipe.

COMMUNITY · version, compatibility, and current behavior must be checked before use.

Evidence boundary

Keep vanilla scarcity, modded routes, and unverified videos separate.

Water use in the starter route is COMMUNITY-labelled. The frozen evidence supports a map-scarcity report and a named mod-list lead, but it does not preserve a reproducible vanilla duplication sequence, a universal exploit, or a guaranteed mod compatibility claim.