Portfolio of Harry R. Marriner-Troubled Waters Lesson Plans

Troubled Waters Lesson Plans
Who Owns Your Water?

With many areas of the world facing potentially severe shortages of water, downstream users of river water sources are increasingly becoming at odds with upstream users who have the advantage of getting the first crack at the water supply. Since rivers and watersheds do not observe national boundaries, possession of the water has put nations in conflict. In this investigation of the problems of upstream/downstream sharing, the student will begin to understand the complex and volatile nature of the thirst for water.

Grade Level: Senior Project

Subject areas: History, Economics, Law, Earth Science, Ethics.

Vocabulary: Privatization, upstream/downstream, water wars, riparian rights, watershed, river basin.

The Problem:

You are happily taking a shower when all of a sudden, your brother flushes the toilet in the other bathroom, blasting you with hot water. You are a victim of being downstream. Or maybe your mother begins to run a load of wash, taking your hot water and icing you down with a stream of nothing but cold. Again, you are downstream, and those upstream get the water. These are common, nuisance instances of two parties not both being able to enjoy a full water supply because one party gets to the water before it can flow to another. But suppose you and your neighbors draw water from a common well, the pipes of which pass your neighbor's house first? What if your neighbors wash their cars, hose off their driveway, take long showers, and leave leaks unrepaired, while you barely have enough water to take a bath? Hard feelings? No doubt. On a larger scale, how would you feel if you lived in a community at the mouth of a river and your water supply was being dammed or used up by a community upriver before it got to you? Make you mad? Most likely. And if you were a country whose water supply was being siphoned off by another, threatening your national economy, health and security, would you go to war over it? That question sits heavily on the shoulders of nations who have that very problem:

Bangladesh, which depends heavily on rivers that originate in India, is suffering terribly now because India has diverted and dammed so many of its water sources. In Africa, relations between Botswana and Namibia are severely strained by Namibian plans to construct a pipeline to divert water from the shared Okavango River. Ethiopia plans to take more water from the Nile, although Egypt is heavily dependent on those waters for irrigation and power. And as water tables fall steadily in the North China Plain (which yields more than half of China's wheat and nearly a third of its corn) as well as in northwest India's Punjab region, experts are bracing for a highly combustible imbalance between available water supplies and human needs.
--http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0234/otis.php

Now four of the world's greatest rivers (the Ganges, Yellow River, Nile, and Colorado) routinely dry up before reaching the ocean...
--http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0234/otis.php

When the former Soviet Union diverted the Ama Dariya and the Syrdariya - the rivers which fed the Aral Sea - to grow cotton in the desert, they created an ecological and human disaster...What was the fourth biggest inland sea is now mostly desert. What appears to be snow on the seabed is really salt. The winds blow this as far as the Himalayas.
---http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/678898.stm

The main conflicts in Africa during the next 25 years could be over that most precious of commodities - water, as countries fight for access to scarce resources.
Potential 'water wars' are likely in areas where rivers and lakes are shared by more than one country, according to a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report.
--http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/454926.stm

So scarce are the water supplies of the region that some have predicted that it will be water, not oil or land, that triggers the next Middle East war.
--http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/from_our_own_correspondent/596039.stm

Blood on the streets was probably the last thing anyone would link to privatization of a water system. But three years ago in a small Bolivian town the perceived water related needs and rights of local citizens collided with the interests of a multinational company and open warfare broke out.
--Impact Magazine, March, 2003, p. 21. (http://www.awra.org/impact/0303impact.pdf)

Water is essential to life. Must we look to a future in which it is worth fighting wars over? Or will there be ways to manage water supplies and mediate disputes to satisfy the world's needs without warfare? Who owns the water and what are their rights? Should water be a public resource or a private one?

Activities:
1. In this project, you will prepare a research paper on the subject of water sharing, particularly the sharing of river waters. You may focus your paper on an area of your choosing, but you will find that this is a complex problem and one area will tend to affect others. The laws regarding water rights differ from country to country, and even in the United States vary over different regions of the country. Cultural and ethical standards are involved, as are historical precedents. Your investigation of this subject will offer you a rich overview of the interrelationships of basic human needs, political systems, legal systems, economic systems, and the realization that water is a substance that binds all human beings together.

2. With your findings, you should develop a product that will be a public way to educate the community about the problems of sharing river waters. Although this is a global problem, you should find a way for your product to emphasize the local nature of the problem as well.

3. You will construct a portfolio of your research. You may include photographs, maps, text, drawings, etc. that illustrate the quality and depth of your research.

4. You will present your research findings to a panel for review. The approach to the presentation is up to you as long as it adequately covers your research and the beliefs or changes the experience has engendered in you.

Suggested Resources:

Video: Troubled Waters
Local environmental organizations
Local water utility