US, MEXICO REACH RIO GRANDE  WATER-SHARING AGREEMENT

IBWC Minute 331 aims at ensuring more regular water deliveries from Mexico to the United States

The United States and Mexico have signed a Rio Grande agreement aimed at ensuring more regular water deliveries from Mexico to the United States. Minute No. 331 provides Mexico with tools and flexibility to deliver water earlier in the five-year cycle under the 1944 U.S.-Mexico water treaty.

A key feature will allow Mexico to use the tools at any time to reduce or prevent shortfalls in water deliveries to the United States, subject to prior U.S. agreement.

The Minute, which comes amid growing water scarcity on both sides of the Rio Grande, recognizes the importance to the United States of incorporating Texas water deliveries in the annual allocation plans of Mexico’s water managers..

The U.S. Government is already consulting with Mexico to ensure the earliest possible use of the Minute to deliver water to the United States during the current rainy season

 The agreement benefits both the United States and Mexico, providing options for avoiding the recurring crises at the end of five-year water cycles. The Minute is the result of over 18 months of negotiations, and a binational initiative dating back to October 2020. At that time, the United States and Mexico signed IBWC Minute No. 325, successfully concluding a five-year water cycle without a deficit, while committing our governments to developing a new Minute to ensure more predictable and reliable water deliveries