Rio Grande border disputes


The Rio Grande has changed course several times in recorded history, leading to a number of border disputes and uncertainties, both international and between individual U.S. states:
Numerous border treaties are jointly administered by the International Boundary and Water Commission, which was established in 1889 to maintain the border, allocate river waters between the two nations, and provide for flood control and water sanitation. Once viewed as a model of international cooperation, in recent decades the IBWC has been heavily criticized as an institutional anachronism, by-passed by modern social, environmental and political issues. In particular, jurisdictional issues regarding water rights in the Rio Grande Valley have caused tension between farmers in the border region and sparked a "water war," according to Mexican political scientist Armand Peschard-Sverdrup.