A swath of western Texas is facing drought conditions, varying in severity from “moderate” to “extreme,” according to data published on Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Many of the worst affected areas are in the Rio Grande Valley with Texas state Representative Terry Canales, a Democrat representing District 40 in southern Texas, urging Governor Greg Abbott to “declare a state of disaster” in response.
Water shortages in southwest Texas have been caused in part by lower than expected transfers from neighboring Mexico. Under the 1944 Water Treaty, Mexico is expected to provide 1.75 million acre-feet of water per five-year cycle. However figures published by the International Boundary and Water Commission show it is on track to miss this requirement for the current cycle which ends in October 2025, with only 382,000 acre-feet of water having been provided thus far.
A sugar mill in Santa Rosa, in the southern tip of Texas, closed in February with the loss of 500 jobs with water shortages attributed as a major factor.
The U.S. Drought Monitor is run as a joint program by the Department of Agriculture, the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Its most recent data indicates there is an “extreme drought” ongoing in a section of central Texas including much of Kerr and Kendall counties along with patches further east around El Paso and Jeff Davis counties.
A “severe drought” is underway in a wider swath around both areas, whilst a “moderate drought” extends out to Coryell County in the north and Midland County from the west. Going further out still “abnormally dry” conditions are in place for much of the western part of Texas.
On the U.S. Drought Monitor map, purple means “extreme drought,” light purple “severe drought,” yellow “severe drought,” orange “moderate drought” and pink “abnormally dry.”
Speaking to The Texas Standard,Professor Luis Ribera, an expert in environmental economics who teaches at Texas A&M University’s Center for North American Studies, said water shortages were already having a serious impact on agriculture in the state.
He said: “There’s been a drought over the last couple of years. But what makes it worse is the treaty that we have with Mexico.
“They’re supposed to deliver about 350,000 acre-feet of water per year on a five-year cycle. And they haven’t done so in a while. They owe us close to 700,000 acre-feet of water as of the end of last year.
“I talked to producers at the end of last year, and they say, ‘we don’t know what we’re going to produce, because right now, our irrigation district, they tell us that there’s no water for agriculture.'”
Parts of Mexico are also suffering from water shortages, with around 60 percent of Mexico experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, according to a recent CNN report.
Scott Olson/GETTY
In a statement sent to Newsweek, Daniel Miller, president of the secessionist Texas Nationalist Movement, urged Abbott to close the Texas-Mexico border to commercial traffic until the requirements under the 1944 Water Treaty are met in full.
He said: “Once again, Texans are bearing the brunt of Mexico being a bad neighbor and the Federal Government actively facilitating the suffering of Texans by refusing to enforce the 1944 Water Treaty.
He urged Texas to put pressure on the Mexican government to comply with the treaty. “It’s time for Governor Abbott to shut down commercial traffic across the border until Mexico complies,” he said.
Newsweek contacted Abbott and the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C. by email at 10:15 a.m. ET on Saturday. This article will be updated if either wishes to comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.