Many doubted that Mexico would succeed in delivering enough water to the U.S. after the long-running dispute came to a boil in September. Farmers, ranchers, and other Mexicans seized the La Boquilla Dam in the northern state of Chihuahua, sparking deadly clashes with the Mexican National Guard. Mexico owed the water to the US by the October 24th deadline under the terms of a 76-year-old treaty but had fallen behind after last year’s installments. The 1944 treaty stipulates that Mexico must deliver 350,000 acre-feet of water annually in five-year cycles. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador vowed to catch up, despite a decade-long drought in Chihuahua that made the situation dire for many Mexican farmers. Growers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, meanwhile, depend on the water for crops. The recent tensions underscore problems with water overuse and depletion throughout the region.
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