Free Flow

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specific bank to finance infrastructure, with capital from

both countries. This legal and institutional arrangement

is unique in the world, and can be an excellent model

for cooperation in other transboundary basins.

operation of water utilities. For the first time in transboundary water

management, there is a model of support and international funding

for a specific border region, which includes a component of social

validation that is essential in the process of certification.

Since its inception, BECC has certified 130 water and wastewater

projects in the border region benefiting 12.8 million people. Total

investments on the Mexican border reached US$591.9 million, of

which US$287.7 million have come from EPA’s resources through

BEIF. As a result, indicators of service coverage have had very signif-

icant increases. In Mexico, these indicators between 1995 (the start

of BECC and NADBANK operations) and 2012 have increased from

89 per cent to 98 per cent in drinking water, 64 per cent to 93 per

cent in urban drainage, and 20.8 per cent to 87 per cent in waste-

water treatment (BECC statistics). These figures are well above the

average in Mexico.

Economic and population growth in this region – the highest

in the two countries and one of the largest in the world – along

with the expected climate change effects that, under most prob-

able scenarios, predict reductions in rainfall and therefore less water

availability, pose a future of greater scarcity which will test this

institutional arrangement. There is a clear need for major changes,

institutional strengthening and greater binational dialogue.

In short, the institutional arrangement reached between the US and

Mexico increases the binational water governance that has allowed

the solution of conflicts caused, for instance, by frequent droughts,

and has improved the water services in the region. The institu-

tions created include not only – as in other countries – a bilateral

commission for distribution of water or navigation regulation, but

also institutions responsible for environmental conservation and a

Main Mexico-US treaties and agreements related to

transboundary waters

Mexico-US Treaty of 1848

– Sets limits between both

countries and establishes sections of the Rio Grande and

Colorado River as borderlines between the two countries.

As a result, the basins of both rivers become international

transboundary basins.

Convention of 1889

– Sets the boundary commission (IBC),

the predecessor of IBWC, between the two countries.

1944 Water Treaty

– Distributes among the two countries

waters of the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers, introducing

commitments from Mexico to the US in the Rio Grande and from

the US to Mexico in the Colorado River. Extends the capabilities

of IBC to IBWC. Creates a system of dispute settlement.

La Paz Agreement, 1983

– Both countries agree to develop

joint actions to improve the environment in the border region.

Through this agreement the EPA and SEMARNAT develop

long-range joint programmes such as the current Border

2012 or the Border Infrastructure Program.

1993 Agreement for the creation of BECC and NADBANK

–

Under the agreement, signed in the context of NAFTA, these

two binational organizations are created and their operating

criteria established.

Public participation has made it possible to obtain support on controversial issues

Image: BECC