Mexico and US fighting a cold war over water

Mr Bush is said to have twice telephoned Mr Fox recently in a cold war over water that threatens to overshadow their shared love of cowboy boots, stetsons and horseriding.

The pair discussed Mr Bush’s plea for the immediate release of billions of gallons of water from six Mexican tributaries to the Rio Grande, the fabled river that straddles the drought-stricken plains between their two countries.

Desperate farmers in Mr Bush’s home state of Texas risk losing their harvest of citrus crops and sugar cane in the next few days, it is claimed, if the water does not come.

Another round of urgent talks in Washington this month over Mexico’s growing water debt to the US failed to find a solution. Under a 1944 treaty between the two countries, Mexico is obliged to provide the US with an annual average of 114 billion gallons through the Rio Grande. But Mexico is nearly 500 billion gallons behind in its payments, thanks in part to a drought that has afflicted its northern states - and parts of the US South - for nearly a decade.

Mr Fox agrees in principle that Mexico must provide more water to Texas. But he insists none need be supplied before September, when a new five-year period begins under the treaty. He is also pleading for a loan for some 70 million to allow Mexican border farmers to set up a more efficient reservoir and irrigation system.

Many Mexicans feel their president has already gone too far in bending to various US demands, while failing to win concessions on his own agenda, such as an amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants working north of the border.

His administration has stood by while the US blocks Mexican trucks from crossing the border, claiming they are unsafe, despite the right of free passage articulated in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Nor can Mexicans understand why their country should help US agriculture, which stands to benefit from nearly $200 billion (140 billion) of subsidies approved by Mr Bush last month, by taking water from equally parched but severely under-funded Mexican farmers in the border states of Chihuahua.

"Mexico’s priorities are ensuring enough water supplies for our border communities and honouring our international obligations," Alicia Buenrostro, Mr Fox’s spokeswoman, told The Scotsman.

She said the failed talks in Washington would resume in a matter of days but would not give details of the highly-sensitive negotiations.

The row has only been deepened by the fact that state elections are imminent on both sides of the border, including some key governors’ races.

This week Patricio Martnez, governor of Chihuahua, publicly accused his Texas counterpart, Republican Rick Perry, of avoiding dialogue. "He has not shown that he has the will for dialogue or to see how we can solve this problem," said Mr Martnez.

Such discord is ominous. With its economy closely linked to Mexico’s, Texas has, ironically, been more supportive of further integration under NAFTA as well as allowing more Mexicans to work legally on Texan farms or drive their lorries over the border.

Some of the strongest opponents of such moves, by contrast, come from the US’s northern states, which actually have least contact with Mexico.

If or when the two sides reach agreement, any harmony is set to be short-lived. Mexico’s water needs are growing as rapidly as its population of 100 million and its fast-developing economy. In Baja California, there are projects to build expensive desalination plants of the type normally only used in oil emirates of the Middle East.

In Mexico City, the giant acquifer below the metropolis, over-exploited since the Spanish conquistadors destroyed the Aztecs’ water system, has only 15 years of water left. Engineers are unsure how they will provide life’s most basic necessity to the city’s 22 million residents once the acquifer is gone.