Border Report Live: US, Mexico at odds over water payments

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McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) -- A water war on the border appears to be brewing between the United States and Mexico.

The United States recently announced it was withholding water payments to Mexico, which has repeatedly come up short in what it owes under a 1944 international water treaty.

This is the first time in recent history the United States has refused to pay Mexico water.

U.S. International Boundary and Water Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner recently told Border Report that about 2,000 acre-feet of water that Tijuana has requested will not be delivered south of the border.

Under the treaty, Mexico is to pay the United States 1.75 million acre-feet of water to the Rio Grande over a five-year cycle -- that's an average of 350,000 acre-feet per year. The United States must pay Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of water via the Colorado during the five-year cycle.

The current cycle ends in October and, so far, Mexico has paid less than 500,000 acre-feet of water -- or about a quarter what it owes, according to the IBWC. Industry experts doubt there is no way it can make up the deficit.

On this week's Border Report Live, we'll discuss why Mexico says it can't pay, if they intend to pay and what other options they have for payment, or the United States has to leverage more water out of Mexico.

It's coming down to the wire, and that also happened in 2020, when local farmers and authorities in Chihuahua, Mexico, refused to give up water from La Boquilla dam.

We'll also discuss how the lack of payments are affecting the South Texas border.

Texas' only sugar mill shut down last year after farmers could not grow the thirsty crops without water. The citrus industry has also been threatened.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins came to the Rio Grande Valley border recently and announced special emergency funding for South Texas growers affected by the drought.

That drew rebuke from Democratic U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who represents the region.

Also, weeks after Rollins' visit, the rains came down in the Rio Grande Valley, and hard.

Over 20 inches of rain fell in Harlingen in a two-day period causing widespread flooding and calls for drainage district improvement.

The water hardly a difference in the region's two reservoirs, which were down to historic lows.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.