Texas Lawmaker Slams Mexico Over Missed Deadline For Water Payments: 'Continuously'

A Texas lawmaker slammed Mexico for again missing a deadline to comply with the countries' 1944 water treaty.

Concretely, Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who represents a border region in south Texas, told Border Report that the responsibility is partly shared for authorities who have not forced Mexico to comply with the treaty despite continued failures to meet its obligations.

"They have continuously missed that deadline many times over the last 80 years And due to failed leadership from people who held this position for the last 80 years, nothing was done," De La Cruz told the outlet.

She went on to say she spoke with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and asked her for help to get the water. "Asked her to continue to apply pressure to the Mexican government. My ask is that she ask them for an additional 350,000 acre-feet of water within the next six months," she added.

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat, called for harsher measures against Mexico. "You've got to have a carrot and stick and you've got to use the stick, right, whenever they don't pay," he said.

"The only way that I think we can actually get this resolved is by putting economic pressure on them. But we have a massive treaty, which makes it so complicated because it's not just South Texas that's involved in that treaty. It's the whole country."

The treaty, signed in 1944, requires Mexico to deliver 1,750,000 acre-feet of water from six tributaries to the U.S. every five years. In exchange, the U.S. has to give Mexico 1,500,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River every year.

However, Mexico ended the latest five-year period with a debt of 925,000 acre-feet of water, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

"TCEQ continues to work closely with our federal partners, including the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to have reliability and consistency under the treaty," the agency said in a statement.

Mexico made payments earlier this year. In April, the Claudia Sheinbaum administration sent a total of 56,750 acre feet of water through a "transfer of ownership in Amistad Dam."

Mexico's water commission CONAGUA has constantly argued that the country is not unwilling to comply, just unable to do so. "We want to comply with the treaty – from which both countries benefit greatly. But we are in a drought situation made worse in recent years due to factors such as climate change," a Mexican official told Border Report in late April.

The Mexican government reacted with a statement of its own, saying that it "reaffirms its commitment to find solutions to facilitate the management and distribution of this vital resource; and move forward in a coordinated manner with the United States for the well-being of residents on both sides of the border."