In 2023, Uruguay faced a severe water crisis that left 60% of the population without access to drinking water. During this period, attention focused on recent extractions from the Guaraní Aquifer for green hydrogen production by European companies. This situation exposes neo-colonial expansion in South American cultural landscapes, highlights climate change impacts on hydrological cycles, and emphasizes the importance of engaging with the surface concerning water. This research examines the interdependence between water and surface uses and explores how we can foster a paradigmatic shift in our relationship with water—not merely as a resource, but as a subject of rights capable of nurturing new affective alliances among humans, non-human entities, and the natural environment, while challenging historically dominant anthropocentric and developmental perspectives. How do our ancestral Indigenous co-manage water, and what lessons can architecture draw from these practices to expand its design agency at the surface?