It is known these things dont work for months, they stop working every server restart. Mine always break but I have heard (and seen) others working just fine and decided to do some tests.
I thought maybe problems could be linked to natural resource despawn radius every structure has, and seems like this is indeed the case. I successfully made a water well continue working after the latest server restart by placing it still inside my claimed area range, but far enough so its outside the natural resource despawn radius.
Im positive fish traps suffer from the same problem, thats how some people manage to keep them working even tho they didnt understand why.