Mexico said it will immediately deliver water to drought-stricken Texas farmers, responding to criticism from former President Donald Trump, who accused President Claudia Sheinbaum of violating a decades-old water-sharing treaty and threatened sanctions and tariffs.
The agreement, signed in 1944, requires Mexico to deliver roughly 2 billion cubic meters of water every five years from the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers. To date, the country has delivered only about 30% of that total. Mexican officials have attributed the shortfall not to a deliberate breach of the treaty, but to an intense drought that has gripped northern Mexico for more than three years.
Water availability remains limited, Sheinbaum said, but Mexico is making efforts to comply with its obligations. “There will be an immediate delivery of several million cubic meters to Texas farmers, based on available resources,” she told reporters.
Sheinbaum, a former environmental researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, with a Ph.D. in energy engineering, emphasized that Mexico has “tried to fulfill its obligations to the extent possible.”
Trump, writing on his social media platform Truth Social, accused Mexico of undermining U.S. agriculture and pledged to enforce the treaty. “I will make sure Mexico does not violate our treaties and harm our Texas farmers,” he wrote. “Just last month, I stopped water shipments to Tijuana until Mexico complies with the treaty. My Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, is standing up for Texas farmers, and we will continue to escalate the consequences — including TARIFFS and possibly even SANCTIONS — until Mexico honors the treaty and GIVES TEXAS THE WATER IT’S OWED!”
Texas is the third-largest citrus producer in the U.S., behind California and Florida, and is also a major grower of pecans, avocados, cotton, and grains. The Rio Grande, one of North America’s largest rivers, supplies water to some 6 million people but is also considered one of the world’s ten most endangered rivers by the World Wildlife Fund. Nearly 80% of its water is used for irrigation on both sides of the border, and its volume is in constant diminishment.
Despite Trump’s rhetoric, Sheinbaum has adopted a conciliatory tone in talks with Washington. “I believe there has been a respectful relationship, and that’s allowed for good communication with the United States and President Trump,” she said Friday. “We always demand respect and offer respect to the United States, and that has made dialogue possible,” she added.
