U.S. Water News Online
WASHINGTON -- A panel of experts that studied Rio Grande water issues for six months said water conflicts should be considered as important to national security as oil, but it fell short of offering a solution for the United States' ongoing water dispute with Mexico.
The panel offered a string of proposals for medium- and long-range management of the Rio Grande, known as the Rio Bravo in Mexico, in a recently-released report.
The ideas ranged from using Web-based technology to offer more information on water supplies to creating a U.S.-Mexico water bank where water is bought and sold by ``wet'' and ``dry'' regions at market-determined prices.
All were intended to raise priority of managing water supplies as a policy issue for the administrations of President Bush and Mexico President Vicente Fox.
But members of the U.S.-Mexico Binational Council, which issued the report, refused to say how the two nations should resolve the ongoing water dispute between U.S. farmers and Mexico. The U.S. farmers say Mexico owes the United States 1.5 million acre feet, about 500 billion gallons, of water under a 1944 water treaty.
Al Zapanta, U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce president, said the countries can resolve the water debt dispute if they ``get away from the past,'' shift focus from the 1944 treaty to the future and ``not get caught up in history.''
He said he was not saying the water debt should be forgiven, but added ``we need to go beyond the treaty.''
Under a 1944 U.S.-Mexico water treaty, Mexico is to release an annual average of 350,000 acre-feet, about 114 billion gallons of water, in cycles of five years to the United States. But some U.S. officials, particularly officials from Texas, say Mexico has not met its treaty obligation over several years.
Mexico disputes it owes water and says it is in compliance with the treaty. Mexican officials say their water supplies have been impacted by extreme drought.
In mid-January, State Department officials announced that Mexico had agreed to release at least 350,000 acre-feet of water by September this year. But Texas government officials criticized the agreement because it did nothing to resolve the water debt.
Return to the U.S. Water News Archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields