U.S., Mexico Agree On Critical Water Treaty Amendment

Story by TIM SULLIVAN

The U.S. and Mexico have agreed on an amendment to the 1944 water treaty that gives Mexico more options for meeting its water delivery requirements.

Officials from both countries gathered in Ciudad Juarez to sign what’s called Minute Number 331.

The amendment allows Mexico to transfer water it owns in the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs to the U.S. It also gives Mexico the option of delivering water from two rivers that aren’t part of the six tributaries named in the treaty. In addition, Mexico would receive credit for delivering water earlier in the treaty’s 5-year cycle.

Mexico is currently behind by about 980,000 acre-feet of water which the treaty requires it deliver to the U.S. by next October – the end of the current cycle. Mexico’s failure to keep up with its water deliveries has contributed to the recent agricultural crisis in the Rio Grande Valley that resulted in the economically damaging loss of the state’s last remaining sugar mill in Santa Rosa.

(Photo courtesy of USIBWC/Rio Grande Guardian)