Water debt: Mexico still owes 240 million cubic meters to the U.S.

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Water debt: two weeks after the deadline to comply with the treaty, Mexico owes 240 million cubic meters.

Conagua indicates that Chihuahua is not being asked for more than its share.

Meeting the quota established in the 1944 International Water Treaty has generated conflicts (Photo: Reuters / José Luis González)Meeting the quota established in the 1944 International Water Treaty has generated conflicts (Photo: Reuters / José Luis González)


Mexico has a deadline of October 24 to complete a quota of 240 million cubic meters of water out of a total of 426 million cubic meters of water to the United States, corresponding to the International Water Treaty of 1944.

The 240 million cubic meters of water is equivalent to 20% of the water that flows through the Conchos River, which is stored in the La Boquilla, El Granero, and Las Vírgenes dams in Chihuahua, according to information from the newspaper Milenio. Complying with the provisions of the agreement has generated tensions between the state and federal governments.

In the three dams listed above, 1,146.5 million cubic meters of water accumulate, that is, what Mexico remains payable represents 20% of what is collected in them.

Blanca Jiménez Cisneros, director of the National Water Commission ( Conagua ) indicated that they are not asking Chihuahua for more than their share, “it is 54.1% of the water that flows all year, they have delivered nothing plus 44% are missing 10%, which is just what we do not need to deliver to the United States […] We are missing about 240 million cubic meters ”.President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has reiterated that the opposition to handing over the water is for electoral reasons (Photo: Nacho Ruiz / Cuartoscuro)
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has reiterated that the opposition to handing over the water is for electoral reasons (Photo: Nacho Ruiz / Cuartoscuro)


On October 9, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador indicated in his morning conference he insisted to the Chihuahua government that the refusal to deliver the water has electoral overtones and added that ” with what has evaporated we would have already paid .”

Meanwhile, Javier Corral Jurado, governor of Chihuahua, stated last week that there is no definitive solution and he would summon citizens to form a common front and demonstrate against this issue.

In the National Water Information System, the La Boquilla dam is at 32% of its ordinary maximum water level, having stored 919.4 million cubic meters of water; the El Granero dam is at 53%, with 155.2 million cubic meters of water and the Las Vírgenes dam is at 20% of its capacity, with 71.1 million cubic meters.

In the case of the international dams La Amistad (Coahuila) and Falcón  (Tamaulipas), they register 4 and 11% of the ordinary maximum water level of what corresponds to the country, both accumulate 229.1 million cubic meters of water, a figure lower than It is required for the country to comply with the water treaty, and it is water that is projected to be used to supply 13 cities of Coahuila and Tamaulipas.Mexico still has 240 million cubic meters of water to pay (Photo: EFE / Luis Torres)
Mexico still has 240 million cubic meters of water to pay (Photo: EFE / Luis Torres)


The rivers from which the water is extracted are: the Conchos, in Chihuahua; Las Vacas, San Diego, San Rodrigo and Escondido, in Coahuila, and El Salado, in Tamaulipas.

The agreement establishes that the water will come from the uncontrolled runoff from the hydrometric station of the International Boundary and Water Commission, from the El Granero dam and from the five rivers established in the Treaty.

“ These are very low dams, so when Chihuahua indicates that it only has 30%, but they have very large dams, the volume that they have in the weight of La Boquilla is 900 million cubic meters. The water from international dams is water for border cities: 1.2 million inhabitants. The water should have been provided by Chihuahua to these cities ”, pointed out Blanca Jiménez.

Conagua is analyzing solutions to comply with the international agreement and the director of Conagua emphasized that double their share has been received from the San Diego tributary river.

Source: INFOBAE

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