The eventual use of national waters from Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas to pay the water debt that Mexico has with the United States violates the 1944 treaty signed between both countries, since it establishes that only international waters can be used to cover said debts.
In response to this, the government of Tamaulipas has already protested to the Federation, since it maintains that the so-called “Act 331”, signed between the representatives of Mexico and the United States before the International Commission of Limits and Waters (CILA), is illegal.
Therefore, the Secretary of Hydraulic Resources for Social Development of Tamaulipas, Raúl Quiroga, stated that his state is not willing to let go of all the water from the Marte R. Gómez dam to cover the debt.
The position of Agua y Drenaje de Monterrey (AyD) was sought to know the perspective of Nuevo Leon, but the request is still pending.
If they do so, said the Tamaulipas official, Nuevo Leon would have to send them water from the El Cuchillo and La Boca dams.
“(The payment for water) will be made with El Cuchillo, with the Marte R. Gomez and with the international dams, violating the 1944 treaty, in an absurd and absolute manner.
“We must be alert, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, to avoid it because the treaty is being violated, because the treaty clearly states that the waters of the San Juan River are 100% Mexican. So we must not allow them to touch those waters so that they can be handed over to the United States,” said Quiroga.
In fact, the name of the agreement itself, signed on November 14, 1944, indicates that it does not include national waters of either country, as it is called “Treaty of Mexico and the United States for the Distribution of International Waters of the Colorado, Tijuana and Bravo Rivers, from Fort Quitman, Texas, to the Gulf of Mexico.”
In its explanatory statement, it also emphasizes that the distribution of water between both countries will be from international reservoirs.
“Only the use of the waters of the Bravo (Grande) and Colorado Rivers is regulated; considering that the use of these waters for other uses and consumption is in the interests of both countries and desiring, on the other hand, to clearly establish and delimit the rights of the two republics over the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and over the Bravo (Grande) River, from Fort Quitman, Texas, the United States of America, to the Gulf of Mexico, in order to obtain its most complete and satisfactory use, have resolved to enter into a treaty,” the document states.
Yesterday, El Horizonte announced that on November 7, the heads of the US and Mexico in the CILA, with the testimony of the US ambassador, Ken Salazar, signed the “Act 331”, which allows that water from the San Juan River basin can also be used to pay the debt with the neighboring country.
In that basin are the Marte R. Gómez dams, in Tamaulipas, and El Cuchillo and La Boca, in Nuevo León.
Therefore, it was established that by October 28, 2025, the debt, which is currently 1,200 million cubic meters (Mm³), would be paid with water from the international dams Falcón and La Amistad, but also from the Marte R. Gómez, known as “El Azúcar”, which, when emptied, would make valid the water agreement between Nuevo León and Tamaulipas to send water from El Cuchillo and La Boca.
Quiroga added that it is alarming that the San Juan River basins have been included in the binational agreement.
“How much (will be allocated from each dam)? Sadly, that will be agreed upon by the same people who signed this document and we are absolutely dissatisfied.
“They don’t say how much water, but they broke the treaty and they are including it as 100% Mexican water, they are including it in the binational agreement and that is alarming because if we don’t have water, then we don’t have it,” he said.
Source: elhorizonte
