OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
  Associated Press

  RIO BRAVO, Mexico - Mexico's transfer of water from the Rio Grande to the United States has enraged farmers south of the border, escalating a
  long-simmering war over flows of the river in the arid region.

  U.S. farmers have long complained that Mexico wasn't fulfilling its promise under international agreements to release an annual average of 350,000
  acre-feet of water a year to southern Texas.

  Mexico is supposed to send the flows north in exchange for 1.5 million acre feet of water from the Colorado River in the American Southwest. An acre foot
  equals nearly 386,000 gallons.

  Before President Vicente Fox took office, Mexico wasn't releasing the full annual allotment to the United States, racking up a debt of 1.3 million acre-feet of
  water.

  After Fox became president in 2000, he began making the minimum yearly payment of water, angering Mexicans in the once-thriving region between the
  border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros where corn, cotton and a variety of vegetables were grown.

  Now Mexican farmers complain they can only grow sorghum, a dryland crop that requires less water and is also less profitable. U.S. farmers aren't happy
  either, saying they still don't have enough to water their crops.

  Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs says the water shortfall has cost farmers in her state nearly $1 billion in crop losses since 1992.

  "There is plenty of water," said Combs, who plans to visit Mexico in February to the issue. "The problem is Mexico is not allocating it to make everybody
  happy."

  President Bush raised the issue when he met with Fox during this month's Special Summit of the Americas in the northern city of Monterrey. Bush prodded
  his Mexican counterpart, picking up a water bottle he brought from the United States and saying "let's talk about this," referring to Mexico's water debt.

  Fox responded that he felt he had paid his annual water dues but recognized that there was still a larger debt to be paid. Bush noted that many Mexican
  dams were still at good levels after this year's heavy rainy season.

  Mexico says that because of a drought that began in 1992, it doesn't have the water to pay the debt that has been growing for the last 10 years.

  Although last year's heavy rains in northeastern Mexico have caused some reservoirs to overflow, the rainfall wasn't captured in the Falcon or Amistad
  International Storage Reservoirs, where water allocations to the United States would come from, said Jose Antonio Rodriguez, a spokesman with Mexico's
  National Water Commission.

  Since Oct. 1, Mexico has transferred 383,554 acre feet of water to the United States, said Sally Spener of the International Boundary and Water
  Commission.

  Carolina Vazquez of Mexico's Water Commission says that fulfills Mexico's yearly dues, but it isn't clear whether Mexico will begin paying on its larger debt
  this year.

  Farmers from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which borders the Texas' Rio Grande Valley, say the recent payment leaves them high and dry and they
  have had to abandon fields and cut back on crops.

  "In the last few years, they first pay the United States and then they tell us there is no water left for us," said Jaime Garza, who heads a farmers'
  cooperative in Rio Bravo, an agricultural town 15 miles east of Reynosa. "We are not asking for extra water. What we want is the water that belongs to
  us."

  Garza and about 14,000 other farmers say they received no water during the first two years of the Fox administration. For this agricultural year, they have
  been given about 650,000 acre-feet, enough water to allow for some cornfields, but farmers remain skeptical.

  "They assigned us that amount, but we have to wait and see if they'll actually give it to us," Garza said.

  Mexican federal authorities have been tightlipped about plans to repay the water debt, declining several interview requests by The Associated Press.

  Combs and Tamaulipas farmers agree the problem stems from the excessive water use by farmers upriver, in the state of Chihuahua.

  "If Fox can fix Chihuahua, everybody can be happy," Combs said.

  ON THE NET

  Texas Department of Agriculture: http://www.agr.state.tx.us

  International Boundary and Water Commission: www.ibwc.state.gov