In this paper we want to highlight the important role technology plays in co-mediating institutions, opening up some courses of action and closing off others. We argue that the development of critical institutionalism requires recognition of the technological dimensions of institutions as the technology also shapes what institutions are, and what they can do. We show this by presenting a case study of a community managed irrigation system, the Seguia Khrichfa in Morocco. This is an ideal case to unravel the complexities in which technologies act. Human practises, and institutions, are interwoven with the canal they interact with, entwined in a shared history of co-defining each other. Through the water it carries, it links water users to each other (in a certain order, some more privileged than others). The canal does not restrict its network to a geographical area. At critical moments it links up to international discourses, agricultural policies and political relations.