You are supposed to have options on where to drop. Even if a course has a "drop zone" on a water hole, that's just a local rule. You are still free to follow the options spelled out in the rules of golf, which give 3 different options for dropping after water, one of which essentially gives you the choice to drop along a line extending between the hole and where it entered the water. You can back up as far as you want along that line.
But WE can't do that here; we are dropped in rough at a lousy distance from the hole.