A 1944 water treaty between the United States and Mexico governs how the two countries utilize and share water within binational bodies.
Under the treaty, the U.S. is required to deliver 1.5 million acre-feet of water from the Colorado River to Mexico every year, while Mexico must deliver 1.75 million acre-feet every five years through tributaries that include the Rio Grande.
The most recent five-year cycle ended Oct. 25 and Mexico is short of delivering hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.
Mexico says the region is in an ongoing drought, and the reservoirs that store the water are at record lows. The U.S. says the failure has led to negative impacts to farmers and ranchers along the Texas-Mexico border.
Vianey Rueda, a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, wrote about the ongoing conflict in the commentary "Drought Does not Know Sanctions."
“There’s a recognition that the current state of water consumption in the region is unsustainable … (and) that the management of growth on both sides of the border needs to change,” she said. “There needs to be a greater commitment to abide by agreements that have been established but also recognize that those need to be modernized to fit the current context.”
Rueda said the treaty affects more than just the two countries — it affects those in the three basins, including: the Tijuana River Basin, the Colorado River Basin, and the Rio Grande basin.
“How these countries decide to address these water challenges will determine a lot of the water access and water affordability for people in those basins,” she said.
Read the English and Spanish versions of Rueda's essay below:
