Most economists consider water just as a production factor necessary for economic activities. From this standpoint, water management becomes a monetary-technical problem aimed to calculate the supposed optimal quantities and prices of water for every economic activity in order to determine which of these activities make the more efficient use of water, efficiency being the capacity of obtaining the highest monetary value for each water unit. In this paper I reasonably argue in favour of a reconceptualization of water as a social asset, that is to say, as an economic, ecological and social heritage. In other words, water belongs to society, it allows a specific way of life, it is also a fundamental part of the national wealth - although it does not even appear in National Accounts - and assures a set of environmental functions which permit life to go on.