Texas and Mexico share not only a land border but also a shrinking supply of water that farmers and communities on both sides depend on for survival. Prolonged drought, excessive heat, and population growth are all blamed for the growing water crisis that already decimated the South Texas sugar industry and is now coming for citrus growers. Texas officials also blame Mexico, which is severely behind on water payments it owes the U.S. from the Rio Grande. Now, lawmakers in the Longhorn State are urging action from the Trump administration.
Last month, Republican Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and U.S. Representatives Monica De La Cruz and Tony Gonzales, as well as Democratic Representatives Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio a letter asking him to use his influence with Mexico to prompt payments of water under the 1944 international treaty. ”Mexico has failed to uphold the spirit of the treaty,” they wrote. “Without consistent deliveries, water shortages significantly impact agricultural stakeholders in South Texas, greatly straining Texas farmers and ranchers and jeopardizing their livelihoods and economic stability.”
For those not familiar, the treaty referred to is the 1944 Water Treaty between Mexico and the United States, which divided the waters of the Rio Grande, the Tijuana River, and the Colorado River. Under the treaty, Mexico must pay the U.S. 1.75 million acre-feet of water in five-year cycles. The current cycle ends in October and Mexico has only paid about a quarter the amount — 434,198 acre-feet as of Jan. 11 — according to the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Texas officials say Mexico’s slow water deliveries are at least partially to blame for the shutdown of the state’s last sugar mill last year. Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers ceased operations in February 2024. The board cited the lack of a reliable irrigation water supply related to the long-running (over 30 years) water dispute with Mexico as a primary reason for the shutdown.
Mexico first missed its deadline to deliver water to Texas in 1997, then again in 2002. Mexico’s payments lapsed again in 2015. While the country repaid that debt in 2016, it then nearly missed its 2020 target, transferring water just three days before its deadline.
Texas has accused Mexico of hoarding its water resources. Because the treaty works in five-year cycles, Mexico is able to hedge its water deliveries during drought periods and delay delivery. Officials say this undercuts Texas’ downstream irrigators’ ability to predict and reliably plan their water budgets.
Officials say the impacts of slow water deliveries that slowly eroded Texas’ sugar industry is now happening to the state’s citrus industry. Texas’ citrus industry is concentrated in the Lower Rio Grande Valley “South Texas is hurting,” said Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association in Mission, Texas. Our community is coming up against a precipice in which we’re not going to be able to grow or industries like agriculture are going to continue to suffer.” Galeazzi is urging the Trump administration to make the Rio Grande water crisis a priority, noting that farmers can’t place orders for seeds if they don’t know how much water they will have next year.
In November 2024, the U.S. and Mexico, acting through the offices of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), reached an agreement to address Mexico’s Rio Grande water debt. Known as “Minute 331,” the agreement allows Mexico to use two of its downstream rivers, the Rio San Juan and Rio Alamo, to fulfill its treaty water obligations. It also lets Mexico bank waters from its other named Rio Grande tributaries in the river’s two large storage dams.
While stakeholders in the region welcome the new agreement and have hopes that it will improve the reliability of Mexican water deliveries, they are disappointed by a lack of short-term relief for South Texas farmers.
According to a recent report from Texas A&M water experts, water conditions on the border have changed so much that the current legal framework for managing them is inadequate. Gabriel Eckstein, Professor of Law at A&M, and Rosario Sanchez, Senior Research Scientist at A&M’s Texas Water Resources Institute, also believe that water problems in the region are likely to worsen.
Eckstein and Sanchez note that about 30 million people live within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the border on both sides. Over the next 30 years, that figure is expected to double. Municipal and industrial water use throughout the region is also expected to increase. In Texas’ lower Rio Grande Valley, municipal use alone could more than double by 2040. At the same time, as climate change continues to worsen, scientists project that snowmelt will decrease and evaporation rates will increase. The Colorado River’s baseflow – the portion of its volume that comes from groundwater, rather than from rain and snow – may decline by nearly -30% in the next 30 years. The full report is available HERE. (Sources: Baker Institute, Texas A&M, Politico)
