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LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR

LATIN AMERICA ADVISOR

A daily publication Of the dialogue

May 13, 2025

What’s at the Root of the U.S.-Mexico Water Conflict?

Water usage from rivers including the Rio Grande (pictured) is governed by a treaty that the United States and Mexico signed in 1944. Mexico has fallen behind on its treaty obligations amid a scarcity of water. // File Photo: Jim Ekstrand via Adobe Stock.

Q

  • Mexico and the United States have reached a new agreement under their 1944 water treaty, which established a framework for sharing the water resources of the Tijuana, Rio Grande and Colorado rivers, the U.S. State Department announced on April 28. Under the new arrangement, Mexico has until October to deliver 420,000 acre-feet of water to the Rio Grande Valley. What are the key components of this new agreement? To what extent does this deal serve as a long-term solution to Mexico’s water debt to the United States? How might this agreement affect U.S.-Mexico relations moving forward?

A

Elizabeth Carter, assistant professor of civil engineering and earth sciences at Syracuse University: “The 1944 treaty allocates about 10 percent of the flow of the Colorado River to Mexico, a small fraction of what would have flowed there naturally. The United States has radically overspent the remaining 90 percent. In the American West, water law follows the doctrine of prior appropriations, in which the first person to divert and use water has the legal right to continue using that amount of water, regardless of land ownership. In 2014, a study suggested that California alone had allocated five times more water than the state has available. In 2024, California’s supply represented a meager 5 percent of its total allocation. The American water crisis is a budgeting issue: In the American Southwest, water rights have been drastically oversold, and we have a massive water spending deficit that is leading to an unsustainable decline…”

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