Compact with U. S. on water allotment

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has reached a deal with the United States to pay the shortfall in its annual contribution of water from borderarea rivers by giving the U. S. Mexico’s rights to water held in border dams that normally supply cities and towns downstream.

The agreement allows Mexico to meet the Saturday deadline which, if missed, could have endangered a crossborder water sharing treaty that greatly benefits Mexico. Mexican officials had also worried the water debt could have become an issue in the upcoming U. S. elections.

The deal transfers Mexico’s share of water held in the Amistad and Falcon dams to U. S. ownership. The amount of water transferred is substantial: 170 million cubic yards, or enough water to flood 105,000 acres with a foot of water.

Mexico said it still had enough water in other dams near the border to satisfy water requirements for 13 border cities including Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros. The United States also agreed to help Mexico if it faces a municipal water shortage.

Under the 1944 treaty, the quantity of water Mexico ships north from the central section of the border is only a fourth of what it receives from the U. S. along the Colorado River to the west, and it has been worried about the possibility of losing that.

Mexico was embarrassed when, over the summer, angry farmers in the border state of Chihuahua seized a key dam there and refused to allow any more water transfers to the United States, claiming they needed the water for their own crops.