From ‘Baker Briefing’: Reimagining US-Mexico Water Cooperation

From the “Baker Briefing” podcast: A water crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border is growing. The 1944 Water Treaty has long guided how both nations share the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers, but climate change, drought, and growing demand are testing its limits.

Guest host Tony Payan speaks with Rosario Sanchez, a senior research scientist at the Texas Water Resources Institute, and Ivonne Cruz, a research scholar at the Baker Institute, about how to rethink water cooperation for an age of scarcity — and what it will take to build a more resilient future for both countries.

Featured guests:

• Ivonne Cruz, Ph.D., https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/ivonne-cruz
• Rosario Sanchez, Ph.D., https://twri.tamu.edu/rosario-sanchez/

Mentioned in this episode:

• Mexico Country Outlook 2026, Rice University’s Baker Institute, https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/mexico-country-outlook-2026

More about Tony Payan, Ph.D.: https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/tony-payan
Follow Tony Payan on X (@PayanTony) and LinkedIn.

You can follow @BakerInstitute and @BakerInstMexico on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.