Trump tells Mexico to deliver water owed to Texas

 Wall Street Journal:

A water fight has erupted between the U.S. and Mexico.

The two countries have shared water from the Rio Grande and the Colorado River since the mid-1940s under an agreement meant to ensure each has an adequate supply of the vital resource.

Now, thanks to drought and other conditions, Mexico owes the U.S. more than 1.2 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande. Frustrated Texas farmers, whose crops are dying of thirst, are urging President Trump to pressure the country into providing water it says it doesn’t have.

“I can only plant half of my farm because I don’t have the irrigation water that’s owed to me,” said Brian Jones, a fourth-generation farmer in Weslaco, Texas, who grows cotton, corn and sorghum on his 1,200-acre farm.

Trump is listening.

On Thursday, he threatened Mexico with tariffs if the country doesn’t meet its obligations. In March, for the first time since the 1944 Water Treaty was signed, the State Department refused a request by Tijuana, Mexico, officials to deliver an emergency supply of municipal water from the Colorado River.

Mexico supplies water to farmers including Jones through the Rio Grande as required under the water treaty, which sets a yearly delivery schedule.

Over the past five years, because of drought and increased irrigation by farmers in northern Mexico, the flow of water to the U.S. has slowed to a trickle.

Rain that falls in northern Mexico collects in the Amistad and Falcon reservoirs, which straddle the U.S.-Mexico border. From there, water is released into the Rio Grande, where it travels to the agricultural region in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Water managers at irrigation districts along the river control a series of gates, canals and pipes that distribute water to farmers. While Mexico can’t shut down the river, it can control how much water goes into the watershed.
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According to the water treaty, the U.S. gets one-third of the flow in the Rio Grande, which forms the border between the two nations, and the rest goes to Mexican farmers.

“We will keep escalating consequences, including TARIFFS and, maybe even SANCTIONS, until Mexico honors the Treaty, and GIVES TEXAS THE WATER THEY ARE OWED!” Trump wrote in a social-media post on Truth Social on Thursday.

In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday said Mexico was working on sending water made scarce by a four-year drought to the U.S. and didn’t believe Trump’s demand for water would lead to a new tariff crisis between the two countries.
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Some Rio Grande Valley farmers, at the southernmost part of Texas, are adapting by growing crops that are less dependent on water, such as sesame and sorghum, which don’t pay as much as cotton or citrus. Others are building retention ponds to collect rainfall, and lining canals with concrete to prevent water from seeping into the dry ground.
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I went to high school in the Rio Grande Valley, around 20 miles from the tip of Texas. I had several friends whose families were farmers and depended on irrigation efforts. Farmers on both sides of the border depend on the Rio Grande, and my recollection is that some of the Texas farmers also farmed on the Mexican side of the border back then.  The famous King Ranch is between Corpus Christi and the Valley Farms.  The main highway into the Valley cuts through the King Ranch.  My dad planted citrus trees in our backyard and harvested the fruit for the family.

Hurricanes also benefit the farmers by refilling the reservoirs.  I recall one coming through after I left the Valley for OCS training in Quantico, Virginia.  I drove my 1966 Mustang for that trip.