Water War With Mexico

Julie Watson writes in AP Latin America that this year, in fields in the drought-stricken Mexican state of Chihuahua, Mexican farmers are threatening a bitter fight for Rio Grande water that could affect relations between the United States and Mexico.
U.S. officials say that under a 1944 treaty, Mexico owes Texas farmers 1.5 million acre-feet of water. Each acre-foot is enough to cover one acre of land with one foot of water, an amount equivalent to 326,000 gallons. The treaty gives Mexico a larger quantity of water, but via the Colorado River far to the west.

Mexico says that because of drought, it doesn't have the water to pay its growing debt. South Texas farmers and even Mexican farmers in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas accuse Chihuahua growers of ignoring the water treaty.

Texas farmers met with U.S. legislators in Brownsville, Texas to show them their dying fields and urge Congress to stall legislation sought by Mexico, such as agreements on immigration, until the water war is resolved.

Outside the city of Delicias in Chihuahua, green fields contrast with the stark, brown mountains. Waist-high wheat waves in the breeze and alfalfa grows in fields near lush pecan orchards. The farms are fed by metal tubes carrying water from canals.

Delicias is near the Rio Conchos, the main tributary feeding the Rio Grande. A study by Texas A & M University reported that Chihuahua farms have expanded even as Mexico hasn’t kept up with its water payments. Texas farmers say the water shortage has cost them an estimated $1 billion so far.

A study found Chihuahua's production of thirsty crops like corn and alfalfa jumped more than 60 percent between the drought years of 1995 and 1999. "We were really shocked," says Parr Rosson, who headed the study. He says Chihuahua's water use rose to 2.3 million acre feet from 1.2 million between 1980 and 1997, though it dropped to 1.6 million in 1999. Since the study ended, corn acreage increased by another 25 percent and that of alfalfa by 11 percent.

A Chihuahua state agriculture official, Jesus Dominguez, disputes the claims, saying, "That's false. They have to show proof." He says a formal response has to come from Mexico's foreign relations department in Mexico city.

Earlier this week, the department issued a statement by legal adviser Alberto Szekely insisting that Mexico was trying to meet its obligations. "We would be complying if we have water, if there had not been an extraordinary drought," he says. "It cannot be said that we are not complying, because it is materially impossible at the moment to comply with the treaty." But he admitted that Mexico needed "a much wiser, very much more intelligent use" of water than in the past.

Chihuahua growers say falling prices for drought-resistant crops left them no choice but to turn to more thirsty crops. "There was no way out other than by planting alfalfa," local farmer Eduardo Melendez says.

Farmers on the U.S. side of the border say they are hurting too. Their reservoirs are at less than 25 percent capacity. "The water levels have dropped so low that cars and bodies started appearing," says agricultural engineer Humberto Estrada. "They found the body of a mayor who was missing. All kinds of things at the bottom of the dam have started appearing over the past few years."

Many Mexican farmers have drilled wells to tap groundwater to support the thirstier, high-value crops. Chihuahua has huge lakes hundreds of feet underground. However, those wells could be lowering the levels of the Rio Conchos, which flows over the underground lakes, according to Rosson. "It's a slow process, but pumping and pumping over time could be causing less flow down to the Rio Grande," he says.

Rosson agrees that Mexico doesn't have enough water, but says Texas would like to see some gestures of good faith, such as investment in more efficient irrigation systems. Most growers continue to use the least-expensive method of irrigation, which is flooding their fields, which wastes large amounts of water in evaporation.

"Why should they have the water and not us, when they're using water that's illegal? That water belongs to somebody else, not them," says Jo Jo White, irrigation manager in Mercedes, Texas. "We've suffered a hardship for seven years because of this illegal act. ... Now it's time to teach them a hard and bitter lesson."

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There is no good solution to this problem.

The lower Rio Grande is essentially fed by three sources:

1. The upper Rio Grande, from its source in Colorado, thru New Mexico and past El Paso to the Big Bend.

2. The Rio Conchas, out of Chihuahua, which joins the Rio Grande at Presidio, just above the Big Bend.

3. The Pecos, out of New Mexico, which joins the Rio Grande below Big Bend.

Problem is, from just below El Paso to Presidio, the Rio Grande no longer exists. Instead, it's a pastiche of salt cedar, cactus and sand. Between the irrigation projects in New Mexico and immediately below El Paso, all the Rio Grande water is used up.

When I canoed the Big Bend in the mid-eighties, every drop of water in the river came out of Mexico, out of the Rio Conchas.

The treaty was drawn in 1944, when Mexican agriculture in the interior was essentially at the subsistence level. But during the last two decades, dams and reservoir developments on the Rio Conchas have created a major area of irrigation agriculture in Chihuahua.

Now, when the Rio Conchas reaches Presidio, it's in about the same condition as the Rio Grande. Barely a trickle.

In fact, at this moment, the current flow in the Rio Grande at Presidio amounts to 65 cfs -- not enough to float a canoe. And, at Pandale, the Pecos (also heavily employed for irrigation) is adding another 90 cfs -- a slightly larger drip.

Thus, there is not enough water to irrigate an onion patch, much less support the irrigation needs in the Lower Rio Grande Valley...

So, we undertake a project to replicate the California Aquaduct canals.

We build them about a 1/2 mile north of the Rio Grand River bed - put up a fence at the existing reiver, and when the damn thing is dry becauswe we divert the upper Rio Grand and the Pecos into the new Aquaduct for American farmers.

when they beetch, our reply should be, "how you manage the water from The Rio Conchas (out of Chihuahua) is not our concern because we don't dictate to Mexico how you manage your own water supply. Us - well, we managed to build this fine Aquaduct that we channel the Upper Rio Grande and Pecos into - so that it can flow unimpeded to the Del Rio Valley in Texas for American Grapefruit crops. =)

In the old days, dams would be built. The dams would form lakes which could be used to regulate the flow of water downstream, and for recreation and fishing. People would have abundant water and fun to boot.

Nowdays, farmers have to keep fields fallow, or go out of business. Environmentalists sue to prevent any effort to create new water storage systems.The government refuses to meet its obligations to create infrastucture that can support our people. Water must be rationed and people start to fight over it. In comes Mikhail Gorbachev and Green Cross International and the international organization takes control of the region's water for the purposes of "water security". An international NGO is now in charge of American water.

That's the difference between then and now.

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