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LEGAL FRAMEWORK AT THE NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL LEVELImage: BECCSocial validation is an essential component of the support and international funding model for the border regiontion to this climate crisis. As the drought duration andintensity increased, communities in Texas put enormouspressure on state and federal governments in theUS. The same thing happened within Mexico betweendownstream and upstream states. In accordance withits functions, IBWC provided a valuable negotiatingframework in which both governments, taking intoconsideration the demands of the states and communities,converged and produced a set of minutes to dealwith the crisis. BECC, through its public participationmechanisms, led a process involving irrigation usersin both countries in supporting a special programmefor the efficient use of water, created specifically todeal with drought. In particular, investments in irrigationsystems in Mexico improved efficiency in wateruse which led to adjustments in water rights. Therecovered water was delivered to tributary rivers, andeventually reached the international reservoirs wherewater is shared by US and Mexico. Reducing the waterrights of irrigation users was not an easy task, but theactions of both governments in the context of BECCmade it possible. NADBANK, meanwhile, at the directionof the US and Mexican governments, establisheda special programme for financing these investmentsfor efficient use of water at irrigation systems along theborder. In this manner, in complex rounds of negotiationsbetween the two governments that lasted nearlytwo years, the binational institutions were allowed toparticipate in the process associated with water consertreatyas waters that arrive at the international sections of the RioGrande and Colorado River. Under the 1944 Treaty, both countriesmake commitments to share water from both river basins. Mexicoagrees to grant to the US an annual volume of 432.72 million cubicmetres on average in a five-year cycle from the Rio Grande basin,and the US is committed to deliver to Mexico 1.85 billion cubicmetres per year from the Colorado River. 3 The treaty also providesfor dispute settlement mechanisms, particularly empowering thecommission to issue minutes, which in turn form part of the treatywithout modifying its terms, so as to manage water under specificconditions such as drought or floods. So far there have been 184minutes, more than one per year on average, which have coveredtopics as diverse as construction and operation of dams on internationalriver sections, construction and joint operation of sanitationinfrastructure at the border, and the consequences of extremehydrometeorological events.BECC and NADBANK, meanwhile, were created jointly in 1993by a special agreement signed in the context of the negotiations ofthe Free Trade Agreement between the two countries. They are sisterinstitutions whose mission is to improve the environment and livingconditions of the inhabitants of the Mexico-US border. Althoughthey are independent institutions, they share objectives and have asingle governing board. At the head of both organizations there is anational of each country, on a rotating basis.This institutional arrangement was severely tested during thedrought of 2000-2006, which caused Mexico to accumulate a deficitof deliveries to the US from the Rio Grande near the volume of a fullfive-year cycle. The binational institutions, under the supervisionof both governments, acted together to achieve a cooperative solu-[ 183 ]