Troubled Waters Lesson Plans
Water Laws
See also:
Water Fables
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Where Has All the Water Gone?
Who Owns Your Water?
Return to Troubled Waters artifact page
Water laws affect local, national and international relations. In this activity students research some of the important disputes over access to water that are affected by the applicable water laws, or in some cases, the lack thereof. They then will participate in creating new water laws for a fictional planet.
Grade Level: High School
Class Time: Two Class periods
Subject areas: Earth Science, Language Arts, History, Legal and Political Systems.
Skill areas: Research, teamwork, oral argument.
Vocabulary: Riparian, prior appropriation, water shed, river basin, ground water, aquifer, aquifer depletion, constituents
Goals and Objectives
- Understand the impact downstream of activities upstream.
- Understand the history of water laws in the United States and the world.
- Understand the two types of water laws, riparian and prior appropriation.
- Understand the workings of a two party political system.
- Demonstrate ability to participate in a logical argument based on knowledge of water issues.
Procedures
View the video Troubled Waters with students, or introduce them to
the problems of water scarcity through the resources below.
Present the students with the scenario below. Assign students to two equal groups, the Downstream Party and the Upstream Party. You may select someone to preside over the legislature or let the parties nominate members and elect a president. Give students time to research upstream/downstream issues on the Internet.
Have students convene the legislature of Nerosophia. (You may have students choose any name they want for the planet). The Downstreamers should be on one side of the room, the Upstreamers on the other. Legislators should rise to speak, and should only speak when recognized by the president. This is not a general discussion, but a debate wherein each speaker has a right to uninterrupted presentation of his message. You may decide on an appropriate time limit. Watching the U.S. Congress on C-Span would be a good warm-up to this experience.
Students should thoroughly debate the issue. If the bill does not pass, amendments can be offered by either party or by a bi-partisan group. Stress accurate wording of amendments so that there will be no ambiguity. Help students understand that laws must be written with precise language. Make them think about their choice of words.
Continue until a bill has been presented that is passed by a two-thirds majority. This will give students an incentive to build consensus on a water management plan that will benefit the most people.
Activities
Scenario:
In the latter years of the 21st century, the Earth has been ravaged by prolonged Water Wars. Increases in population and demand for water, along with wasteful habits, have created such a shortage that the only way to ensure an adequate supply is to seize it militarily. Water has been hoarded by the strong and diverted to their uses so that many thousands have died, economies have shrunk to nothing, and whole countries have become barren. In the year 2107, with the Earth wracked by the Water Wars of the previous century, a party has been sent to colonize a new planet. This planet is remarkably like the earth. It has beautiful mountains, oceans, lakes, rivers and streams. The landscape ranges from lush forests to coastal plains to beaches, but also to areas of aridity, dry plains and deserts. The colonists have been sent to be the first residents of this new planet, and to be its first legislators.
As members of the colonizing party, you have been living on the new planet for three years. You have developed a constitution based on that of the United States of America and meet regularly to develop the laws for the new planet, Nerosophia. Bound to prevent the water tragedies experienced on Earth, you have met to discuss a bill before the legislature that would set important precedents for the management of water resources on your new planet. There are two political parties, the Upstream Party, whose members live in higher elevations and near water sources; and the Downstream Party, whose members live nearer the oceans and low lying areas.
The bill before the legislature is this:
Whereas the present citizens of Nerosophia, having taken the brave step of leaving Earth to colonize a new world, and having the responsibility to prepare the way for later Earth colonists, as well as generations of Nerosophians to come; and
Whereas the waters of our new planet must be managed for the biological, recreational, and economic needs of the citizens; and
Whereas those best fitted to manage the water are those nearest the source; and
Whereas great wealth shall come to those who control the water; therefore,
Be it resolved that the waters of Nerosophia shall by law be owned by those who make first claim to it, as being on their legally owned property; and those same claimants shall own any water on lands they may procure in the future; and those claimants shall have sole right and obligation to decide the proper usage, diversion, or consumption of such water.
As members of the Legislature, you must be prepared to argue for or against this bill. You will be assigned to be either a Downstreamer or an Upstreamer. You must defend the interests of your constituents. You should research some of the resources below, or those you find on your own, so that you will have knowledge of the issues. You should be able to back up your arguments with facts and historical precedents applying to this problem. You may propose amendments to the bill, or propose rewording of the bill.
After debate on the bill, a vote will be taken. By Nerosophian law, any bill must pass by a two-thirds majority. It is important to get a bill passed to prevent water disputes, lest the mistakes of the past be repeated.
Resources
Bringing upstreamers and downstreamers together
International Water Law Project
NPR Audio U.S.-Mexico (http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1141175)