Texas Lawmakers Call On Trump To Put Pressure On Mexico For Failing To Comply With Water Treaty

Texas lawmakers are requesting the Trump administration to put pressure on Mexico, claiming the country is failing to comply with water deliveries.

According to Border Report, members of the state’s congressional delegations are even calling for sanctions, should they be necessary.

The outlet noted that the deadline for Mexico to deliver a certain amount of water to the U.S. under the treaty arrived on Friday, but the country did not meet its obligations and is now in debt.

The treaty, signed in 1944, requires Mexico to deliver 1,750,000 acre-feet of water from six tributaries to the U.S. every five years. In exchange, the U.S. has to give Mexico 1,500,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River every year.

However, Mexico ended the latest five-year period with a debt of 925,000 acre-feet of water, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

“TCEQ continues to work closely with our federal partners, including the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to have reliability and consistency under the treaty,” the agency said in a statement.

Mexico made payments earlier this year. In April, the Claudia Sheinbaum administration sent a total of 56,750 acre feet of water through a “transfer of ownership in Amistad Dam.”

Mexico’s water commission CONAGUA has constantly argued that the country is not unwilling to comply, just unable to do so. “We want to comply with the treaty – from which both countries benefit greatly. But we are in a drought situation made worse in recent years due to factors such as climate change,” a Mexican official told Border Report in late April.

That month, the two countries signed an agreement by which Mexico committed to sending between 324,000 and 420,000 acre-feet of water by the end of October. As of October 11, the outlet added, they had delivered a little over 280,000 acre-feet.

The Mexican government reacted with a statement of its own, saying that it “reaffirms its commitment to find solutions to facilitate the management and distribution of this vital resource; and move forward in a coordinated manner with the United States for the well-being of residents on both sides of the border.”