Mexico To Increase Water Deliveries To U.S. After Trump Sanctions Threat

Mexico will increase water deliveries to the United States, the two countries announced, after President Donald Trump threatened to impose sanctions on the country if it didn’t take steps to address the unmet obligations.

Concretely, the countries said Mexico will immediately transfer some of its water reserves to the U.S. and also give a larger share of the flow of water from the Rio Grande until October.

The decision from the Claudia Sheinbaum administration took place less than a day after Trump made the threat, saying there will be “an immediate delivery of a number of millions of cubic meters” of water to the region.”

Tensions stem from a 1944 treaty that that states the U.S. must receive 1.75 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande every five years. However, six months from the end of a new cycle, Mexico still owes about two thirds of the total.

Mexico’s water commission CONAGUA has constantly argued that the country is not unwilling to comply, just unable to do so. Figures from the office in late March show that the Amistad and Falcon Reservoirs are currently sitting at just 13.7% and 7.2% capacity, respectively. Similarly, other reservoirs along the border such as La Boquilla Dam in Chihuahua and Las Virgenes in Southern California are also sitting at a low capacity.

“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,” the official told Border Report.

That’s why The New York Times warned that while the concession defuses bilateral tensions, it could “revive civil unrest triggered by previous water payments to the United States.” It recalled that in 2020 farmers seized control of a dam in the border region and attempted to cease water deliveries to the U.S.

Sheinbaum has been repeatedly praised by Trump, saying she is a “fantastic woman.” “She’s just a fantastic persona and she’s been very nice,” he said two weeks ago.