1944 Water Treaty Between Mexico and the United States: Present Situation and Future Potential

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: May 23, 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17428/rfn.v18i36.1029
Keywords:
water management request bilateral treaty border region Rio Bravo

Main Article Content

Anabel Sánchez
Universidad Iberoamericana

Abstract

 Historically and culturally, water has always been considered to be a critical issue in Mexico- USA agenda. Along the 3 140-km border between Mexico and the United States, there is intense competition over the adequate availability of water. Water uses in urban border areas have continued to increase exponentially due to steadily increasing levels of population growth. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation have resulted in more intensive patterns of water consumption and use. Agricultural water demands continue to be high. Mexico and the United States have established institutions and agreements to manage and protect rivers in the border region. The Treaty between Mexico and the United States for the Utilisation of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande was signed in 1944. With the turn of the century, the growing urban centers along the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo), where the river becomes the international boundary, started increasingly to depend on groundwater. This situation was not specifically addressed in the 1944 Treaty, especially as groundwater use at that time was not so significant.RESUMENEl manejo y distribución del agua en la frontera ha sido, históricamente, uno de los temas controvertibles en la relación México-Estados Unidos. Desde 1945 a la fecha, la población se ha cuadruplicado en esta región fronteriza de más de 2 000 millas (más de 3 000 kilómetros). Debido a que esta zona presenta un escaso nivel de precipitación pluvial, con el paso de los años, los centros urbanos a lo largo de esta franja fronteriza han tenido que depender del río Bravo y de depósitos subterráneos para poder satisfacer la creciente demanda de agua. Esta situación ha rebasado las disposiciones establecidas en el Tratado Internacional de Límites y Aguas entre México y Estados Unidos, instrumento que desde 1944 se ha encargado de la utilización de las aguas del río Colorado, río Tijuana y río Bravo en la frontera entre estos dos países. La actual demanda de agua en esta zona y las condiciones poco claras establecidas por el tratado en términos de sequía extrema han provocado que el manejo y la sobreexplotación de los acuíferos se hayan convertido en punto focal de las discusión binacional que conmina a reflexionar acerca de los términos del tratado de 1944.

Article Details

How to Cite
Sánchez, A. (2017). 1944 Water Treaty Between Mexico and the United States: Present Situation and Future Potential. Frontera Norte, 18(36), 125–144. https://doi.org/10.17428/rfn.v18i36.1029
Issue
Vol. 18 No. 36 (2006): julio-diciembre, 2006
Section
Papers

Authors publishing work in this journal agree to the following conditions:

  1. Authors retain copyright and assign first publication rights to the journal Frontera Norte (RFN), with the texts registered under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which allows third parties to use published material provided they give credit to the authors and acknowledge this journal as the first publisher.

  2. They authorize the reproduction, publication, translation, communication, and transmission of their paper and all accompanying material, publicly and in any form and by any means; its public distribution in as many copies as required; and public communication thereof in any form, including making it available to the public through electronic means or any other technology, and solely for dissemination and scientific, cultural, and non-commercial purposes.

  3. Authors may enter into further independent contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the paper published in this journal (for instance, to include it in an institutional repository or personal webpage, or publish it in a book), provided it is not for commercial purposes and they clearly state that the work was first published in Frontera Norte (RFN) [and add the corresponding bibliographical record: Author/s (Year). Title of paper. Frontera Norte, volume (number), pp. doi: xxxx].

To that end, authors must submit the form assigning ownership of first publication rights, duly completed and signed. This document is to be uploaded in PDF format as a complementary file on the OJS platform.

Licencia de Creative Commons

This work is released under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)..

References

Berger, D., 1995, Precious Resources: Water Issues in the Lower Rio Grande Basin, USA, National Audubon Society.

Bixby, K., 1999, “Water Conflicts in the El Paso del Norte Border Region,” Borderline, 57:6, web site: http://www.irc online.org/bordline/1999/bl57/bl57comp1.html.

Border Environment Research Reports, 1999, “The US-Mexican Environment: A Road Map to a Sustainable 2020,” Report on Border Institute, Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy, December, 5:1-20 Brown, C., 2003, “New Directions in Binational Water Resource Management in the U. S.-Mexico Borderlands,” The Social Science Journal, 40(4):555-572.

Business Frontier, Branch, 2004, Maquiladora Downturn: Structural Change or Cyclical Factors?, Issue 2, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, El Paso.

Comisión Nacional del Agua (CNA), 1999, Compendio básico del agua en México, México, CNA.

Castelán, E., 2000, Análisis y Perspectiva del Recurso Hídrico en México, tesis de maestría, México, Instituto Politécnico Nacional.

Chávez, O., 2000, “Mining of International Shared Aquifers: El Paso-Juarez Case,” Natural Resource Journal, 40, 2:237-261.

Ingram, H., 2000, “Trans-boundary Groundwater on the US-Mexico Border: Is the Glass Half Full, Half Empty, or even on the Table?,” Natural Resources Journal, 40, 2:185-189.

International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), 1998, Trans-boundary Aquifer and Bi-national Ground-Water Data Base. City of El Paso/Juarez Area, web site: http://www.ibwc.state.gov. , 2005, website for the IBWC, accessed 10 August 2005, http://

www.ibwc.state.gov/.

Kourous, G. 2000, “The Great NADBANK Debate,” Borderline 71, 8:9, web site: http://www.irc-online.org/bordline/2000/bl71second.html.

Ley de Aguas Nacionales, 1999, México, Editorial Porrúa.

Moore, E., 2000, “A Focus on a Bi-national Watershed with a View Toward Fostering a Cross-Border Dialogue,” Natural Resources Journal, 40, 2:281-341.

Mumme, S., 1993, “Innovation and Reform in Trans-boundary Resource Management: A Critical Look at the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico,” Natural Resources Journal, 33:93-120.

______, 1999, “NAFTA's Environmental Side Agreement: Almost Green?,” Borderline, 60:9, web site: http://www.irc-online.org/bordline/1999/bl60/bl60naft.html.

______, 2000, “Minute 242 and Beyond: Challenges and Opportunities for Managing Trans-boundary Groundwater on the Mexico-US Border,” Natural Resources Journal, 40, 2:341-378.

NAFTA Works, 2001, Chihuahua, Washington, D. C., Mexican Embassy, web site: http://www.naftaworks.org.

Peach, J. and Williams, J., 1999, “Borderlands Demographic Trends,” Borderline, 7:7, web site: http://www.ironline.org/bordline/1999/bl58dem.html.

Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, 1947, El Tratado de Aguas Internacionales celebrado entre México y los Estados Unidos el 3 de febrero de 1944, Mexico, SRE.

Schmandt, J., 2000, Water and Sustainable Development in the Binational Lower Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Basin, USA, Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).

______and Stolp, C., 2000, “Navigating the Water of the El Paso del Norte: People's Guide,” US-Mexican Policy Report, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, web site: http://www.harc.edu/download/Navigating_the_waters.pdf.

Tortajada, C., 1999, “Legal and Regulatory Regime for Water Management in Mexico and its Possible Use in Other Latin American Countries,” International Water Resources Association, 24, 4:316-322.

______, 2000, Environmental Sustainability of Water Management in Mexico,” Mexico, Third World Center for Water Management.

Utton, A., 1994, “Water and the Arid Southwest: An International Region Under Stress”, Natural Resources Journal, 34:955-961.

www.ibwc.state.gov.

www.epa.gov/usmexicoborder.

Zohrab, S., 1998, Groundwater Resources and Challenges Along the US-Mexican Border, Mexico, Sociedad Mexicana de la Ciencia del Suelo, Memoria del Simposio Internacional de Aguas Subterráneas.