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Adaptive governance is proposed as an analytical framework for understanding water distributions in the Anthropocene and for fostering transformative interventions. In this contribution, we demonstrate the usefulness of bricolage thinking for a more grounded and power-sensitive analysis of adaptive water governance. More specifically, we employ the notions of institutional bricolage and extend them to socio-technical tinkering to argue for an understanding of adaptive governance as an experimental practice. To develop our arguments, we draw from research on municipal water supply governance in Accra, Ghana, and in Mansfeld-Südharz, Germany – two regions where the modern ideal of a centrally managed large-scale infrastructure is in growing tension with more modest imaginaries. We demonstrate how residents and water providers adapt to local historical–geographical contexts and unexpected disruptions by using novel and existing multi-purpose institutional and infrastructural arrangements across multiple scales. Through the notion of water bricolage, we show how modest imaginaries and realities of municipal water supply infrastructure and governance emerge. In concluding, we suggest everyday engagements with rules, people and materials as a lens to further understand adaptive governance and identify spaces for transformative interventions.