MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – An agreement has been reached to ensure more regular water supplies from Mexico to the United States, both governments said on Saturday, after a long period of tension over a decades-old treaty.
A new measure from the International Boundary and Water Commission, which oversees the 1944 U.S.-Mexico water treaty, will provide Mexico with “tools and flexibility to deliver water earlier in the five-year cycle,” according to a statement from the IBWC.
Neighboring countries have feuded over the 1944 treaty, which was intended to allocate shared water resources. Mexico is required to send 1.75 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande to the United States over a five-year cycle to provide farmers with critical irrigation.
However, the Latin American country has failed to achieve full water supplies recently, amid some of the most severe drought-related water shortages in almost three decades.
Mexico said in its own statement that the measure would ensure greater reliability and predictability of water allocations to users in both countries, establish new working groups and improve water quality in the Rio Grande basin.
The new measure was the result of eighteen months of negotiations, the IBWC said.
Mexico and the United States will establish working groups to “develop water conservation for the benefit of both countries,” the IBWC said.
