• PROJECT: The Chihuahua state government is planning to build a water purification plant along the Río Grande river to allow the harnessing of at least 15,000 acres feet of water that could help the US border city of Ciudad Juárez (pop. 1.3 million) in managing its water stress problems.
• DELIVERIES: According to the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), Ciudad Juárez has been unable to use at least 25% of the 60,000 acres feet of water that the US delivers every year to Mexico and that is mostly used for irrigation in the Valle de Juárez area east of the city.
• OPTIONS: “We were seeing if it could be used here in parks, if it could be used by the (local water) board, if we could put it in a regulating glass and then use it to irrigate parks. But nobody had an infrastructure to store it”, said José de Jesús Luévano, Mexican Section Secretary of the IBWC.
• PLANT: The water deliveries from the Río Grande river to Ciudad Juárez are regulated by a 1906 convention between the US and Mexico. Since then, the Mexican government has failed to fully exploit them. Under the plan, the city will buy 10 acres of land next to the river for the facility.
