A progress report as the U.S. and Mexico worked to update a 1944 water treaty impacting growers in Texas: Mexican leadership “has taken some early steps to not only use this agreement as an example, but prior to the agreement increase water deliveries. We hope Mexico will continue along that trend.”
That’s Agriculture Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke Lindberg. He is among those leading the nation in negotiations on updates to the water treaty talks, already producing the release of 202,000 acre-feet of water by Mexico, with deliveries to the U.S. beginning in mid-December. A second point of negotiation: “having Mexico repay its outstanding water debt,” with a final commitment and plan by Mexico to pay off the water debt to the U.S. offered by Jan. 31 as part of the talks.
As the undersecretary further explains, “We have two main issues at hand here. The first is getting a plan in place for Mexico to meet its future obligations. So, every year, Mexico owes the United States about 350,000 acre-feet of water, which they have not delivered on in the past.”
That is where the recent water release by Mexico serves as a starting point in wrapping up such delivery to U.S. farmers in Texas and the southwestern U.S.
“The second piece that we’ve been working closely on is actually having Mexico repay its outstanding water debt. So, we calculate these water cycles in five-year cycle form, and the last cycle just completed earlier this year. And so, by the end of January, we anticipate that we will reach a final commitment on that second point, which is how Mexico plans to repay to erase that outstanding debt.”