Project Grade 12 Social Studies & Civics
The Vesser Basin Treaty: Ordania and Belmarre Negotiate
A five-session grade 12 project in which two fictional countries negotiate a shared river and aquifer treaty, then argue for ratification before a joint commission.
Objectives
- Students will draft treaty articles that allocate a shared river and limit pumping from a shared aquifer.
- Students will justify each article using a named principle of shared water allocation.
- Students will negotiate within stated red lines and explain any concession to their own legislature.
- Students will argue for ratification in writing and before a commission.
Vocabulary
Key words: treaty, allocation, equitable use, ratification, joint commission
Teacher overview
Rivers and aquifers cross borders that were drawn for other reasons, and the countries on either side have to write down how they will share what crosses. This project asks two delegations to negotiate a treaty for a fictional shared basin, draft the text, and then argue for ratification before a commission of their classmates. The misconception to address in the first session is the widespread belief that a court or an international body decides these disputes and enforces the result. Where shared basins are governed at all, it is mostly through negotiated treaties and standing joint commissions, and many shared basins, like the Vesser, still have no treaty. Any agreement holds only as long as both governments keep finding it worth honoring, which is why the ratification step in this project matters as much as the drafting.
Project Brief
Driving question. When two countries share one river and the aquifer beneath its floodplain, what allocation can both governments actually ratify?
The situation. Ordania and Belmarre are fictional neighboring countries. The fictional Vesser River rises in Ordania and crosses into Belmarre. Ordania has about 4.2 million people and an economy built on irrigated grain, and its farm ministry has proposed adding 180,000 irrigated acres in the upper valley. Belmarre has about 6.8 million people, and its three coastal cities draw both from the river and from the fictional Tavermont Aquifer. That aquifer is recharged mainly where the river spreads across its floodplain, and most of that floodplain lies inside Ordania. A four-year drought has cut flows. The two countries have no treaty. A 1974 memorandum between their water ministries only commits each side to share gauge readings.
Basin figures you must use. Flow measured at the border averages 1.9 million acre-feet a year. In the driest year on record it was 1.1 million acre-feet. Belmarre's cities currently withdraw about 700,000 acre-feet a year from the river and about 300,000 acre-feet a year from the aquifer. Ordania currently diverts about 900,000 acre-feet a year, and the proposed expansion would add about 250,000 acre-feet.
Your task. Working as one of the two delegations, negotiate and draft a treaty of no more than 1,200 words. The treaty must contain six articles:
- allocation of flow in a normal year,
- a drought rule that changes each side's share when measured flow falls below a stated level,
- a limit on pumping from the aquifer within the floodplain recharge zone,
- data sharing and joint monitoring, including who measures and how often,
- dispute resolution, naming who decides and what happens while a dispute is open,
- review and amendment, naming when the treaty is reopened.
Constraints. Beside each article you must name at least one of the four allocation principles in your packet: equitable and reasonable use, no significant harm, existing uses, and basic human needs. Your delegation packet also lists three red lines. You may cross a red line only if your own legislature caucus, a second team of classmates, votes to allow it, and you must explain the concession to them in writing first.
What you turn in. One signed draft treaty text from the two delegations together, one ratification memo of a single page from each delegation, and a ten-minute joint presentation to the Vesser Joint Commission, played by the rest of the class. The commission votes on ratification and records its reasons.
Delegation Packets
Print one packet for each delegation and a copy for its legislature caucus. Each packet repeats the basin figures and the four allocation principles from the brief, then lists that delegation's three red lines.
Ordania's red lines.
- At least part of the proposed 180,000-acre irrigation expansion must be allowed to proceed.
- No cap may hold Ordania's normal-year diversions below the current 900,000 acre-feet.
- Any monitoring station on Ordanian soil must be jointly staffed by both countries.
Belmarre's red lines.
- The treaty must guarantee a stated minimum flow at the border in drought years.
- The treaty must set an enforceable limit on pumping in the floodplain recharge zone.
- No cut may be made to Belmarre's current 700,000 acre-feet of river withdrawals in a normal year.
Milestones
- Session 1, country brief. Each delegation produces a one-page profile of its own country covering hydrology, economy, current withdrawals, and its three red lines stated in its own words. The teacher approves the brief before negotiation begins. A brief that restates the packet without connecting a red line to a stated interest goes back for revision.
- Session 2, principles memo. Each delegation ranks the four allocation principles from most to least favorable to its position and justifies the ranking with its own basin figures. Delegations exchange memos at the end of the session, which means each side enters negotiation knowing how the other intends to argue.
- Session 3, first negotiation round and term sheet. The two delegations meet and produce one signed term sheet on chart paper with three columns: agreed, still open, and refused. Every refusal must name the red line behind it. The term sheet is the checkable output for this session.
- Session 4, draft treaty text. Delegations write the six articles, keeping the whole text under 1,200 words, and name the principle behind each article in the margin. Each delegation then takes the draft to its legislature caucus, which marks any article that crosses a red line. Any crossed line must be renegotiated or approved in writing before session 5.
- Session 5, ratification. Each delegation submits its one-page ratification memo and the two deliver a joint ten-minute presentation to the Vesser Joint Commission. The commission questions them for five minutes, votes to ratify or to return the treaty for a stated fix, and records the reasons for its vote.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treaty completeness and constraints | Fewer than four required articles appear, or the text runs well past the word limit. | Most articles appear but at least one is a heading with no operative terms. | All six articles appear with operative terms, and the text is within the word limit. | All six articles are complete and internally consistent, and the drought rule and pumping limit refer to each other correctly. |
| Use of allocation principles | Principles are named nowhere or named at random. | Some articles cite a principle, but the connection is not explained. | Every article names a principle and the connection is stated in a sentence. | Principles are used to resolve a real conflict between the delegations, and the text shows where one principle was preferred over another and why. |
| Negotiation and accommodation | The delegation restates its opening position throughout and makes no offer. | The delegation makes offers but ignores the other side's stated interests. | The delegation makes at least two offers that respond to the other side's stated interests, and documents them on the term sheet. | The delegation trades across articles, so that a concession in one is paid for in another, and can explain the trade to its own caucus. |
| Ratification memo and presentation | The memo asserts a position with no evidence, and the presentation reads the treaty aloud. | The memo cites one treaty term, and the presentation covers only the delegation's own gains. | The memo states a claim, cites treaty terms and basin figures, and the presentation answers commission questions with evidence. | The memo also answers the strongest objection raised in caucus, and the presentation shows why the other side can ratify too. |
Differentiation
Support
Assign these students to the legislature caucus rather than the negotiating table. The caucus works from a checklist of the three red lines and a two-question review form, which gives a concrete task with a fixed structure while keeping them inside the deliberation. Provide a partially completed country brief with the hydrology section already filled in.
Extension
Ask students to add a seventh article covering water quality at the border, then write a paragraph explaining why quality articles are harder to enforce than quantity articles and what monitoring the article would need to be meaningful.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "allocation," "ratify," "concession," and "red line" with a short labeled diagram of a basin, a table of shares, and a legislature stamping a document. Provide a treaty article template with the standard sentence openings used in agreements, such as "Each Party shall" and "In any year in which," so students focus on the terms rather than on the phrasing.
Extensions
Have students compare their treaty with the way two American states divide a shared river under a compact, using a state agency summary, and write one paragraph on what the compact does that their treaty does not. A second option is to hold a second commission session two weeks later in which a new drought is announced and the delegations must apply their own drought rule to it.