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y„ 0 ROl EC. Winter 2005 -2006 A project of the Water Education Foundation COMMON CAUSE: Border Water Issues Unite, Divide U.S., Mexico By Glenn Totten Water and environmental concerns have long existed along the U.S.- Mexico border, but those concerns may be growing in an era of increasing supply - demand pressures, population growth and regionalization of border economies in the two countries. Demands on the western border region's principal water supply, the Colorado River, are growing with population and economic develop- ment, as are demands to preserve at least part of the river's historic delta region in Mexico. These increasing demands on the river have brought into sharper focus an array of water supply and environmental E. issues — how to supply growing border areas with irrigation and municipal water, how to keep fragile riparian habitat available for endangered species and how to get binational institutions and stakeholders to find common cause on solutions to often nettlesome border issues. With virtually every drop of Colo- rado River water allotted to one user or another, any shift in water allocation in the border environment, near the river's end point at the Gulf of California, would be acutely felt and would be controversial. Some see it as a zero -sum game — there is I � - mmi 4 7,-; Z 9 a finite amount of water to distribute for various uses, and any efforts to change the distribution pattern inevitably must take from supplies already allocated to one or more existing users. Strategies for finding solutions include traditional diplomatic avenues, voluntary stake- holder collaborations, private initiatives and lawsuits. Each approach has its advocates and doubters. Some have suggested that the border is becoming less relevant as the historic business, social and family relationships Continued on page 4 �i.