SAN BENITO, TEXAS (RFD NEWS) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott says breaking news could come soon about Mexico’s long-overdue water payments under a 1944 international treaty, raising cautious hope for South Texas farmers and ranchers who have struggled through years of severe shortages.
Mexico has fallen behind by several hundred thousand acre-feet in required water deliveries to the United States, a shortfall that has had devastating consequences across the Rio Grande Valley.
Texas State Representative Janie Lopez, whose District 37 covers parts of South Texas hardest hit by the shortage, says the lack of water has crippled agriculture in her region. Her district includes a sugar mill that shut down after more than 50 years of operation, along with thousands of acres of farmland left idle due to insufficient irrigation.
“We lost the sugar mill, we had thousands of acres of cotton shut down also,” Lopez said. “My farmers are shutting down acres, thousands of acres a day. They don’t have any hope anymore. Even if we were to get the water back right now, it’s a little too late.”
Among those impacted is England Cattle Company in Mercedes, Texas. Producer Benton England says the ongoing water shortage has prevented his operation from farming at full capacity for nearly five years.
“We haven’t been able to farm our full farm for about this, will be going into our fifth year now,” England said. “So that means we just cannot plant, mainly because if you don’t have water, you can’t farm.”
Late last year, Mexico agreed to deliver 202,000 acre-feet of water by the end of March, with deliveries beginning the week of December 15. However, Lopez recently reported that the Amistad/Falcon reservoir system near her district remains just 27.59 percent full, raising doubts about whether the commitment will be met.
RFD NEWS Correspondent Frank McCaffrey says many South Texas producers remain skeptical.
“Most farms here in South Texas report the devastating impact of Mexico not making its water payment,” McCaffrey said. “And many of the farmers down here wonder if Mexico will ever truthfully make that full payment.”
England says he is not optimistic.
“No, I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think so,” he said. “I think that they will, in some discussion, they’ll try to make it seem like they did, and we’ll sweep it under the rug.”State leaders say they are exploring long-term solutions to protect Texas agriculture from future shortfalls.
“In the state we’re looking at, how do we build more water systems so that we can have the water that we need without having to rely on luck, if it’s going to rain or not,” Lopez said. “Because that’s really what we were relying on—and Mexico wasn’t giving us our water.”
England believes stronger enforcement tools could also play a role.
“The discussion on tariffs is one of them,” he said. “And I think that’s been a strong tool used quite a bit to make people get in line and do what they said they were going to do.”
England adds that a major hurricane could reach South Texas and refill reservoirs before Mexico fulfills its obligation, potentially delaying the issue for years.
RFD NEWS reached out to Democratic U.S. Representative Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34) for comment. His office provided the following statement:
Texas officials say they will continue pushing for accountability, as South Texas agriculture waits for relief that many producers say is long overdue.
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