The latest water crisis in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo water basin produced those most venerable of U.S.-Mexican border initiatives: the quick fix and the promise. With parched south Texas farmers clamoring for Mexico to turn over 1.5 million acre-feet of water it owes the United States, and with Mexico insisting its drought-sapped reservoirs were too low, the two nations in June unveiled an agreement called Minute 308. The bilateral accord freed up 90,000 acre-feet of Mexican water for immediate use in south Texas and calls for investing some $200 million to improve the efficiency of irrigation systems on both sides of the border. It also would permit the North American Development Bank (NADBank), which already finances some water-conservation work... [Log in to read more]
