Abstract
The traditional water reservoirs are gradually disappearing from the Pondicherry region (India). Actors are mobilising to preserve what they claim as a heritage. Based on the analysis of their actions (advocacy, collective cleaning, water festival, etc.) and considering the plurality of values, stakes and attachments towards the Kanagan lake, now located in the city of Pondicherry, we analyse this work of patrimonialisation. Rather than a return to a past state, it consists of a reinvention. It is based on associating and forming alliances for the maintenance of the lake, assembling different justifications for preservation that goes beyond an opposition between conservation and development, and working to recreate ordinary ties with the lake.