New Book on US-Mexico Water Management Cooperation Available

El Colegio de la Frontera Norte has issued a new book, Visiones contemporáneas de la cooperación y la gestión del agua en la frontera Mexico-Estados Unidos (Contemporary visions for cooperation and water management on the Mexico-US border), edited by José Luis Castro Ruiz, Alfonso Andrés Cortez Lara, and Vicente Sánchez Munguía. This collection of papers by scholars from Mexico and the US, with content in both Spanish and English, contains a chapter by Mary-Belle Cruz Ayala, a post-doctoral researcher at the WRRC, and others on the overuse of groundwater in northwestern Mexico and the implementation of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for mitigating climate change impacts. The book ranges geographically from Baja California to the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande region, encompassing the binational water framework, water security and climate change, transboundary groundwater, and local governance. It is an excellent summary of successful examples of collaboration between Mexico and the US, as well as the challenges faced when conducting binational projects.

 

For example, chapters reviewing the Mexican regulatory water framework suggest that the National Water Law should incorporate regulations for groundwater and underscores the need to improve mechanisms for transboundary participation including non-governmental actors. The Colorado River is featured in several chapters dealing with water security and the impacts of variability on the regions dependent on the river’s hydrology. Potential solutions to water scarcity, such as desalination and MAR, also are described. The exigencies of social and financial asymmetries, and the need for binational cooperation and collaboration, emerge as major themes.