(AFP) – Mexico has agreed to immediately provide water to the United States to reduce shortfalls under a decades-old treaty at the center of a diplomatic spat, the two countries said Monday. The pledge came after US President Donald Trump threatened more tariffs unless Mexico met its commitments, accusing the neighboring nation of “stealing” water from farmers in the southern state of Texas.
Trump accused Mexico of violating a 1944 pact under which the United States shares water from the Colorado River in exchange for flows from the Rio Grande, which forms part of the border between the two countries. Mexico agreed with the United States to immediately send water from the Rio Grande and make further transfers during the upcoming rainy season, according to its foreign ministry. It underscored Mexico’s “firm desire to continue fulfilling its commitments under the 1944 treaty, which has been of great benefit to the development of the country’s northern border.”
The US State Department welcomed the agreement, which it said would “help American farmers, ranchers, and municipalities in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley get much-needed water and reduce shortfalls in deliveries” under the treaty. It thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for her “personal involvement” in facilitating a resolution to the dispute. “The United States and Mexico also committed to develop a long-term plan to reliably meet treaty requirements while addressing outstanding water debts,” it added. The current treaty cycle expires in October and Mexico owed the United States more than 1.55 billion cubic meters, according to the two countries’ boundary and water commission.
Washington said on March 20 that it had rejected a request by Mexico for special delivery of water for the first time due to the shortfalls. The row came against a backdrop of increased tensions between the two countries due to Trump’s global trade war and demands for increased action from Mexico against undocumented migration and drug trafficking.
The Colorado River has seen its water levels shrink due to drought and heavy agricultural consumption in the southwestern United States. US farmers and lawmakers complain that their southern neighbor has waited until the end of each cycle and has been coming up short in the latest period. The Mexican government says that the Rio Grande basin has suffered from two decades of drought that reached extreme levels in 2023. In 2020, farmers in the northern state of Chihuahua seized a dam to prevent the government from supplying water from a reservoir to the United States, leading to clashes between protesters and the National Guard that left one person dead.
© 2024 AFP
