US, Mexico sign river agreement to reduce water shortage – Firstpost

The United States and Mexico said on Saturday they had signed an agreement aimed at preventing water shortages in the parched southern US states with more reliable river water supplies from Mexico.

The agreement – the result of more than 18 months of negotiations – was reached amid growing water shortages on both sides of the Rio Grande River, which is part of the shared border, the countries’ Boundary and Water Commission said.

The United States is consulting with Mexico on securing water supplies as soon as possible during the current rainy season, the statement said.

“The past 30 years of overstretched water management in the Rio Grande Basin has produced broad agreement that the status quo is unacceptable,” said Maria-Olena Giner, U.S. Representative to the Boundary and Water Commission.

According to a treaty signed in 1944, Mexico supplies water to the United States from the Rio Grande in five-year cycles.

Instead, the United States delivers water from the Colorado River.

The new deal gives Mexico “tools and flexibility” to provide water earlier in the five-year cycle to reduce or prevent shortages, the statement said.

The deal has been at the center of decades of diplomatic wrangling in the past due to supply delays, as well as protests by Mexican farmers worried about the impact of drought on their crops.