USDA said Mexico will provide extra water to Texas to make up the treaty shortage

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Monday that Mexico would send more water to Texas to help make up for a shortfall. This is in line with a deal from 1944 that says the two countries should share water.

Lawmakers and officials in the U.S. have said that Texas farmers are being hurt by Mexico’s failure to follow through on its treaty duties.

Mexico says that the country’s water supplies are being used up because of the drought.

“We reached a deal to give Texas farmers the water they need to grow after weeks of talks with Mexican cabinet officials and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. Rollins said in a statement, “This is a big step forward, and we look forward to Mexico’s continued support for the future of American agriculture.”

According to Reuters earlier this month, the water problem had become a possible new front in trade talks between the two countries.

The water deal says that every five years, Mexico has to send 1.75 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande to the United States.

For the next five years, ending in October, Mexico will “transfer water from international reservoirs and increase the U.S. share of the flow in six of Mexico’s Rio Grande tributaries,” according to a statement from the USDA.

Along with other officials from the State Department, Tammy Bruce thanked Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, for “personally facilitating cooperation across multiple levels of her government to establish a unified path to addressing this ongoing priority.”

In a statement released later that same day, Mexico’s government said it would take “a series of measures aimed at mitigating potential shortfalls in water deliveries.” These measures include transferring water right away and during the coming rainy season.

“All of these actions have as their fundamental premise the assurance of water supplies for human consumption for the Mexican populations that depend on the waters of the Rio Grande,” the statement stated.