A well-known example to demonstrate Newton's third law is rowing a boat on water. It can be simply explained as follows: The rower is pushing the water backwards with the oar and the water exerts a reaction force on the oar. That force is received by the entire system of boat (beacuse the rower holding the oar is inside the boat) causing the boat to move forward. But does that phrase "pushing the water backwards" mean the rower is pushing back the lake? (by 'lake' I mean the entire system including the dam as well)
Considering the confusion poped-up in the comments, I thought it will be easier to visualize the lake as a huge basin, and I think you can now understand my question. Does the oar push that basin back?