Water is not hard to deal with. Now it's just another resource you need to be aware of and collect. It's not something you're always going to be short of. Previously, you would just make a stack of water jars and then forget about water because you had all you need. Not anymore.
The traider will usually have water for sale. There's a vending machine that will always have water or red tea or something.
When you start, do the first quest and the traider might give you a stack of water as a reward. The first thing you buy is the cooking pot and then buy as much water as you can afford. Do another quest. Again, you might get a stack of water as a reward or a stack of duct tape or a stack of glue. Pick that because then you don't need water to make duct tape or glue.
Buy as much water as you can from the vendor or the vending machine. If it doesn't have any, get something to drink. The next morning the vending machine will refresh. I think, it is nightly. If I'm wrong, it refreshes often keep checking it.
Look for liquor stores to loot because stacks of liquor will always have murky water. The hardware store will have a line of toilets. At least two of them will have murky water and maybe a pistol. Check out the vending machines you come across in the town, mark the ones in your map that work. You can come back to them for water.
I don't build a dew collector anymore because I'm short of water only the first night and have to keep an eye on how much I drink. I might not make anything that requires water to make glue. By the end of the next day I have all the water I need but I'm always buying water from the trader or a vending machine. It's cheap. Lol