Concerns Mount Over Rio Grande Valley’s Water Shortage Amidst Mexico’s Treaty Delays

Rio Grande Valley – The valley’s water shortage is impacting the agricultural scene severely. Local farmers and companies are concerned about the repercussions.  

The 1944 water treaty between the U.S. and Mexico states that Mexico is expected to deliver one-point-seven-five million feet-acre of water to the U.S. within five-year cycles. We are now in year four of the current cycle and Mexico owes the U.S. more than 750,000 acre-feet of water. 

According to International Boundary and Water Commission, Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, the cause of the valley’s water shortage is because of Mexico’s delay of water deliveries during the current five-year cycle. Giner adds that it is likely Mexico will not be able to meet the treaty requirements when the cycle ends, which will be in 2025. This impacts the valley’s irrigation districts where their storage is less than half of their water right.  

President of Val Verde Vegetable Company, Frank Schuster, explains how his farms are responding to the situation. “Our river farm, it’s 700 acres, we’ve only been able to farm about, uh, 70 acres this past year, and that’s because we were able to purchase water, uh, two years ago… But now we do not have sufficient water to plant a crop this fall.” Schuster also says because he does not know what his water status will be, planning of water usage is difficult to do.  

Despite Mexico being incompliant, Giner says there are no penalties in the treaty. “The consequences are merely diplomatic, um, and they do have the opportunity to carry over to another five years that deficit if there is… extraordinary drought, or a serious accident. We have not determined that yet…”  

As a side note, Schuster showed us these graphs to show the progress of Mexico’s deliveries over the years. “It shows inflows into Mexico and how much they gave us… This one, it shows where we are this year versus past years where we started at a higher level.”  

In the meantime, Giner says there are short term solutions, or tools, to help Mexico alleviate the deficit gap. The IBWC has authorization from the U.S. to sign a new agreement with Mexico, but are currently waiting for Mexico’s permission, with no known deadline. 

For KVAQ-TV in Edinburg, Alexandra Salazar.