“The International Boundary and Water Commission on How US and Mexican Sections handle Transboundary water issues”

Wednesday, April 18th 2007
“The International Boundary and Water Commission on How US and Mexican Sections Handle Transboundary Water Issues”
[Presentation]
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1st point: the elements that capture first of all the attention are:
-    The Commission was established long time ago (more than one century),
-    The structure of the commission in two national and similar commission in US and Mexico,
-    Original function included strict regular meetings at technical level to prepare the decision-maker (political) meetings,
-    Flexible adaptation regarding to the issues to be faced.
2nd point: the data and information dissemination is ensured by annual water report. An open and transparent exchange of data, and i.e. data that can be trusted is essential
3rd point: During the discussion, several points were addressed.
The strategy include their joint efforts to treat wastewater at different locations along the Rio Grande.
The future vision of the commission ? Will the basin approach be accepted and implemented? Do they include groundwater consideratios into transboundary management ? The link between scientific and political considerations is crucial ? Best to keep as much as possible at a technical level and to use the political level only when absolutely necessary.
-    The impact of climatic change and deforestation are taken into account in the simulation of water management,
-    Due to ground water scarcity, sensitising actions are developed to convince users to abstract groundwater for water supply,
4th point: future learning
Due to surface water scarcity that is expanding progressively, the Commission has decided to invest in groundwater studies
Blog Rapporteur: Djamel Latrech