A small noria makes the region around it green and creates the fertility needed to build oriental farms. It uses water moved by animal power to irrigate the dry land. The maximum volume of water which can be stored is 500. It can be increased to 600 by deploying an Item. Further in the game, you will be able to build Large noria, which are more expensive to build and larger (about twice the building footprint), but have a much larger watering radius and are cheaper to maintain per watered radius. With attainments you can increase the amount of water in a Noria by up to 2000 tons.

Once a Noria is almost empty (below 80 ton left), you'll receive a warning that your noria is drying up. To keep the land not drying again you need to pay 1 gold coin for every ton of water replinished. Use the "up arrow" in the upper right of the noria's info panel to replenish it.

Also see Noria exploit.

Small noria
Building details
Cost	1000 5 3
Maintenance (Inactive)	30
Size	3 x 3
Icon