One of the features of SimCity 2000 is a brand-new model that adds water supply to the city. In the original SimCity, water was simply there as decoration, but SimCity 2000 adds the fact that all buildings need water pipes to them. However, it was originally much more complicated and advanced, including adding functional dams.
Much of the water model did not make it into the final game. While it is mentioned that the main advanced water model (dams, etc.) was cut, SimCity 2000: Power, Politics, and Planning, Revised Edition (see page 417) discusses that the water tower should animate when it's filling up, but the water tower is not an animated object at all. This indicates that the feature was taken out fairly late in development.
Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be found in the game files to indicate such, especially since SimCity 2000 is closed source.
I imagine that the proposed water model was similar to how it's portrayed in Terraria, that is, water flows downhill and will pool in any area if there's not a way for escape.
The guide also seems to indicate that water pumps will pump depending on elevation and season, mentioning only early prototypes did NOT have that this feature. This too appears to be inaccurate. Doing some testing, water pumps do indeed fluctuate the water output year-round (to simulate "dry season") but they don't change on elevation, at least as of Mac v1.2. In October, a water pump surrounded by land at 50 feet elevation outputted 18,000 gallons, as did pumps at 550 feet. At 2550 feet (creating a mountain that destroyed a good chunk of the city) the pumps still outputted the same.
The water towers are bugged and actually useless in the game. The idea is that the water tower will take in water and supply it during a water shortage, with it filling slowly when there's no water, and releasing it when it hits capacity of 40,000 gallons. Instead, if water is present in the system, it fills instantly, and when water disappears (like say, tearing down every water pump), the water towers selfishly refuse to give up their hydrating bounty.
