I was in my LHS in the railroad section and saw a bag of some type of {plastic?} material that has a low melt point.
It is designed to make "water", heat, melt, pour, and as it cools it hardens creating the water, I have not tried it but it sure looks easy.
I suspect that it cools clear, and would work nice for small streams, lay the bed with various size rocks and maybe a old log or some stumps then pour in the liquid and let it harden.
I have a pair of winter dioramas and a Africa Corp diorama then I will be doing something with water. I will try the stuff and report back