Water - Social Justice Challenge

This is my very belated wrap up for the Social Justice Challenge February Topic -- Water. I addressed the initial questions for this topic here.

I wanted to read Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway but I had a difficult time locating a copy of the book, so I adjusted my reading to online articles. I chose to focus on dams. In my AP Human Geograpy class we were studying development and one of the first pieces of infrastructure that can contribute to the development of an area is a dam. I created a lesson comparing and contrasting the Aswan High Dam in Egypt and the Three Gorges Dam in China. We looked at the economic, political, cultural and environmental impact of each dam. Students then had to decide if each dam was a positive or negative force on the area and support their decision with specific data. Overwhelmingly they addressed the environmental and cultural concerns of the Three Gorges Dam, while admitting that the dam did control flooding and helped prevent drought in parts of China. This brought about many excellent discussion points on development, flooding, agriculture, preservation of culture and environmental concerns and the impossible situation governments face trying to satisfy all points of view. Living in a community where a dam and the lake it creates permeates many parts of their life, it was an eye opening lesson for many of them.

** I did finally find a copy of Monique and the Mango Rains. A review is coming very soon.