Mexico has been crushing Texas farmers and border communities by not releasing water from its dams as part of an international agreement signed in 1944. The ongoing issue, worsened by sustained droughts has pushed a Texas county to issue an emergency declaration.
This week, Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino issued a disaster declaration for his county citing that the drought conditions presented an imminent and continuous threat to the region. The declaration comes ahead of the start of the hot summer season in South Texas that is expected to adversely affect farmers and communities due to a lack of water, Trevino said in a prepared statement.
Earlier this year, the county judge sent letters to the U.S. Department of State asked them to pressure Mexico into releasing water from their dams so that Texas counties could deal with the issue. These letters appear to have not had any effect.
At the root of the issue is the 1944 International Water Treaty that regulates how much water each country gets from the Rio Grande and the Colorado River. According to documents from the treaty, Mexico gets 4,317,210,000 cubic meters of water every 15 days from the Rio Grande, while Texas gets 2,158, 605, 000.
Texas officials claim that Mexico has not released its share of water and as such, they have not been able to replenish the water levels at Amistad and Falcon Dams.
Trevino has urged farmers in his county to reach out to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to have access to various disaster assistance tools and funding to save their crops and prevent further damage.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.