This text describes the process of troubleshooting water quality issues in a municipal water management system, starting by eliminating problems with the sewer pipe and then checking the water quality at various stages from the treatment plant to the tap. The author suggests using a binary search strategy or an "educated guess" based on experience and knowledge of the system to narrow down the problem's location. The analogy is drawn between data plumbing and software development, highlighting the importance of understanding the overall system to identify issues outside one's domain and inform others or fix problems oneself.