Block 5: Water Scarcity + Water Rights + Stakeholders Map Assigned

What today is about

The unit pivots today. From "how water works" to "who decides who gets it."

Two big concepts land first. Water scarcity isn't one thing; it's two. Physical scarcity = not enough water in the system (Aral Sea, Cape Town's "Day Zero", parts of Yemen). Economic scarcity = water exists but the institutional / infrastructural capacity to deliver it doesn't (much of sub-Saharan Africa, slum settlements in megacities). Chennai's 2019 near-Day-Zero was both: depleted aquifers (physical) plus collapsed institutional response (economic). Most real disputes layer the two.

Then the four water-rights frameworks. They allocate the same physical water differently:

• Riparian rights: whoever owns the bank owns the use. Long history in English / Indian / common-law systems.
• Prior appropriation: first to use, first to claim. Dominant in the US West. "Use it or lose it" creates perverse incentives.
• Public trust doctrine: water is common heritage, government holds it in trust for citizens including future generations.
• Common-pool resource theory: Elinor Ostrom's Nobel work showing communal management often outperforms private or state ownership. Local irrigation associations as the classic example.

Each framework gives different stakeholders different claims. Today is also assignment kickoff: the Water Stakeholders Map + Position Paper is assigned, the 8 cases released, the two-tier choice explained. From this block forward, every U5 activity feeds your Position Paper.