Water diplomacy and shared resources along the United States-Mexico border

Authors

Maria Elena Giner
Gabriel Eckstein, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

11-2020

ISBN

9780367218133

Abstract

The United States and Mexico are geographic neighbors with high economic asymmetry, but also a shared history and intense social, cultural, economic, and security relations. Over 15 million people reside along the U.S.-Mexico border and share an environment that includes many watersheds and air basins transcending political boundaries. Pollution impacts on both sides of the border have required a coordinated response at the local, state, and federal level.

At the federal level, a joint institution was created in in 1889 as the International Boundary Commission and later renamed the International Boundary and Water Commission to provide binational solutions to issues that arise during the application of U.S.-Mexico treaties regarding boundary demarcation, right to transboundary waters, sanitation, water quality, and flood control in the border region. Two additional international institutions were created in 1994 as a side agreement to NAFTA in response to NGO input. The Border Environment Cooperation Commission and the North American Development Bank (later merged into one organization) were created to assist local communities to coordinate with state and federal agencies with a mandated to improve the environmental conditions of the U.S.-Mexico border region in order to advance the well-being of residents in both nations.

The purpose of this chapter is to better understand the role of these binational organizations in water diplomacy and conflict management in the broader context of cooperation over shared water resources. The intent is to assess through a theoretical framework how these organizations have contributed to the prevention, mitigation, or solution of water conflict specifically along the Rio Grande, which spans 2,000 kilometers along U.S Mexico border.

First Page

72

Last Page

90

Num Pages

19

Publisher

Routledge

Rights

This book chapter is published by Routledge in River Basin Organizations in Water Diplomacy on November 20, 2020, available online: https://www.routledge.com/River-Basin-Organizations-in-Water-Diplomacy/Kittikhoun-Schmeier/p/book/9780367218133

Editor

Anoulak Kittikhoun & Susanne Schmeier

Book Title

River Basin Organizations in Water Diplomacy

Recommended Citation

Maria E. Giner & Gabriel Eckstein, Water diplomacy and shared resources along the United States-Mexico border, in River Basin Organizations in Water Diplomacy 72 (Anoulak Kittikhoun & Susanne Schmeier eds., 2020).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1510

File Type

PDF