The new agreement of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), which supervises the 1944 treaty, will provide the Latin American country with “tools and flexibility” for the delivery of the liquid, according to a statement from the US section of the IBWC.
The United States and Mexico have had disputes over the 1944 treaty, which was designed to allocate shared water resources.
Under the pact, Mexico must send 1.75 million acre-feet (2,158,590 liters) of water from the Rio Grande to its northern neighbor during each five-year cycle, to supply U.S. farmers with critical irrigation.
However, it has not fully fulfilled its commitments in recent times, in the midst of one of the most serious droughts in almost three decades.
The Mexican section of CILA said in its own statement that the measure would provide greater “reliability and predictability” in water deliveries to users in both countries, establish new working groups and improve water quality in the Rio Grande basin.
