This short scene takes place in a local cantina in Western Mexico. For my PhD I followed water managers in everyday water distribution. Besides the expected scenes in the office and along the canals, similar parties became unexpectedly important in the everyday decision making about water flows. This is where male bonding, singing songs together, and the mutual exchange of stories & favours occur.

Jokingly, these men would say they are ‘echando agua’, which means putting water in a canal, but the simultaneous hand gesture they made also suggests a double meaning: throwing back beers. This offers a perspective on those informal moments that office workers spend at a coffee machine - where we hear revealing stories, which are never told in meetings. It provides valuable insights into how an organization functions.