on the border between Mexico and the United States, water sharing becomes a state affair

On the Rio Grande, a treaty dating from 1944 sets the rules on the sharing of water between the two countries, following the meanders of the immense border river. But are the indicated and expected volumes still relevant with the drying up of the river?

On the Rio Grande, one of the longest rivers on the American continent, multiple meanders forced the United States and Mexico to agree on the sharing of its waters. A treaty dating from 1944 sets the rules, in particular one where Mexico undertakes to release two million liters of water towards Texas, when the river crosses the border.

According to the old treaty, the account is not there. Texas has only received half the volume of water called for in the agreement and Texas sugarcane producers are furious. Some farms have already gone bankrupt, others estimate that they will not have enough water to start their next harvest. Their first instinct was to accuse their Mexican neighbors who did not respect their commitments. And the quarrel is turning into a diplomatic crisis. Elected officials from Texas, in a letter addressed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Washington, ask American diplomacy to suspend aid granted to Mexico.

Republican elected official Monica De La Cruz calls for sanctions: “Our diplomacy has plenty of tools at its disposal to force or strongly encourage Mexico to give us our water. But it has not done so.” This Republican MP takes the opportunity to attack the Democratic American government. We are in the electoral campaign in the United States and the equation is quickly made up. The discontent of the cane planters is an excellent source for recovering votes in the next elections.

But holding Mexico solely responsible does not take into account a more global state of the situation. The bottom line is that the old Rio Grande is exhausted, tired of having its water pumped so intensely on both sides of the border. This is above all the observation made by this scientist from the Texas Water Resources Research Institute: “The sources have lost 83% of their original flow since 1990. The sources are drying up because of the acceleration in the rate of growth and consumption, and they are also impacted by climate change.”

If we assume that nature has no boundaries, Mexico and the United States are equally affected by the drying up of the river. Water scarcity has been a serious problem for many years, particularly because of certain American companies. In Chiapas, the relocation of Coca-Cola factories has ravaged groundwater and entire communities have been deprived of drinking water. Overexploitation, global warming… Before accusing each other between neighbors, the first question is whether the volumes of water indicated in a treaty dating from 1944 are still relevant in our time.