Mexican Lawmakers Defiant on H2O
Say U.S. won't get more of resource despite treaty

May 31, 2002
Congress has issued a declaration saying Mexico will not provide the U.S. with water because of the drought that is affecting its own citizens in northern states, El Universal daily reported Thursday.

The congressional declaration rejected the "unfounded complaints and pressures" from the U.S., and even called the claims of a water debt "fictitious."

A 1944 bilateral treaty states Mexico must provide the U.S. with 431.4 million cubic meters of water annually from the Rio Bravo - known as Rio Grande north of the border. With the border region suffering the worst drought in decades, the U.S. has been openly pressing Mexico on the issue.

But national legislators argue at the moment there is no debt to the U.S. because the treaty states that the volume of water must be provided "in cycles of five years." Therefore, Mexico could theoretically fall behind schedule and make up the volume later - as long as by the end of the cycle all the water, amounting to 2.157 billion cubic meters, is handed over.

At the same time, legislators - aware the 1997-2002 cycle will end on September 26 and that there is no end in sight for the drought - are trying to invoke a clause of the treaty that would give Mexico "flexibility in complying with its obligations" in times of drought, El Universal said.

Speaking for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Senator Oscar Luebbert of the northern state of Tamaulipas called on Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga to declare the 1997-2002 a cycle of "extreme drought." He said Usabiaga was failing to live up to his responsibilities by not doing so, citing this year's drought has been the worst in 70 years.

Senator Lydia Madero, of the governing National Action Party (PAN), said Mexico's water reserves - estimated at seven percent of normal levels - were "insufficient to attend to the needs of (its) population and comply with its obligations to the U.S."

Meanwhile, President Vicente Fox let a self-imposed two-week deadline pass on Thursday without offering the U.S. a promised proposal on how Mexico would fulfill the terms of the water treaty. Presidential sources said Fox wanted to consult first with the governors of northern states and Congress.

El Universal reported Fox met with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow last week to talk about the thorny issue. An anonymous source cited by the newspaper said a plan drawn up between the two sides states Mexico's commitment to comply with the treaty but that serving the country's border communities would take priority "over providing water to the U.S."

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