In many basins worldwide aquifers have proven to be a strategic source of water during droughts and in contexts where surface water is already largely allocated. At the same time, effective groundwater regulation either by the authorities or by users themselves has been elusive, leading to overdraft and resource degradation.
In the Rio Grande/Bravo, groundwater pumping has increasingly gained importance in a context where droughts and chronic water stress are testing the resilience of the existing governance structures that regulate water sharing among water users, between states within Mexico and US, and between the two riparian countries. This paper aims at exploring the challenges associated with aquifer exploitation in such complex governance setting and how water practitioners and water users are addressing them. The resulting picture can contribute to inform the incipient debate about the need to include groundwater in intergovernmental agreements and to regulate groundwater use at different scales.
Combining primary and documentary data with news reports and the content of interviews with water practitioners in the basin, the paper explores the complex role of groundwater in different portions of the Rio Grande/Bravo basin, and points to the fact that aquifer exploitation is key in ensuring the compliance of intergovernmental agreements but is also an important source of disputes among governmental actors in the basin.
