Laserfiche WebLink
<br />-Y' <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />"SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TREATY IN THE CASE OF THE COLORADO RIVER <br /> <br />N- <br />W <br />en <br />-.1 <br /> <br />In order to understand better the enormous importance <br />that the treaty has for Mexico with respect to the Colorado <br />River, it is necessary to give a brief historical description. <br /> <br />At the beginning of this century a concession was given <br />to an American company, organized for the purpose as a Mexican <br />company, in order that it might construct a canal, the Alamo, <br />which, passing through Mexico, would carry the waters of the <br />Colorado River for the irrigation of the rich Imperial Valley <br />in the United states. By this concession, Mexico has the <br />right to use up to 50 percent of the water that flows through <br />said canal. <br /> <br />The existence of this canal permitted the rapid develop- <br />ment of the American lands of the Imperial Valley and the <br />slower development of the Me~ican lands of the Mexicali Valley, <br />with our country using not 50 percent of the water of the <br />Alamo Canal, a percentage which it never reached, but an <br />amount, in the majority of cases, close to the third part of <br />the volume that passed through the canal. While the Alamo <br />Canal functioned for carrying water to the American Imperial <br />Valley, the Mexican lands did not have any problem other than <br />that which arose from years of low current in the Colorado <br />River, in which case the American and Mexican lands suffered <br />equally. <br /> <br />In order to be able to use to better advantage the waters <br />of the Colorado River the United States projected and con- <br />structed: (l) a great storage dam, the highest in the world, <br />Boulder Pam, a work that was terminated in 1935 and that per- <br />mits the storage of the flow of two average years of the <br />Colorado River; and (2) the All American Canal, which runs <br />exclusively in American territory. <br /> <br />We Mexican engineers, when we saw that these gigantic <br />works were being executed, understood that there approached <br />a critical moment for Mexico in which the lands of Mexicali <br />Valley ran the danger of returning to their condition of one <br />of the most inhospitable deserts of the world through lack of <br />water, since our country would have to depend on taking water, <br />in the manner that it might best be able to do it, from the <br />Colorado River by using the occasional surpluses that might <br />flow through said river. <br /> <br />Information Bulletin #l8 <br /> <br />-10- <br /> <br />January l2, 1962 <br /> <br />1 <br />"ell <br />".' <br />