The technology for small scale water turbines has become pretty sophisticated. A friend of mine some years back was going to install one in a small creek that meandered through his two and a half acres of land. The creek was only a couple of feet across, and there was a small waterfall, only two or three feet high. He was going to install a small scale turbine in that creek. The only thing that prevented him from doing that was a strike in Canada at the time that prevented the turbine from being shipped to the US. By the time the turbine could have been shipped, my friend had decided to sell that property and move to another location.