Central & South America | Revising water treaties
Above: The Gallito Ciego dam in Cajamarca, Peru
Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo plant and the 210MW Restitución plant in the Andes. Built in 1973, these plants are essential to the country’s electricity generation. The modernisation effort, which began in May 2024, will last nearly three years. It includes replacing ageing equipment and upgrading auxiliary systems to extend their operational life, along with training programmes to ensure ongoing safety and reliability. AFRY’s role covers contract review, risk analysis, technical coordination, quality assessment, and supervision of factory and on-site testing. The firm aims to ensure that the project meets the highest technical and safety standards.
Uruguay In 2024, hydropower accounted for over 50% of Uruguay’s total electricity production which climbed to a record 14.4TWh. Work also began on the modernisation of the Rincón de Baygorria hydroelectric plant during 2024, with plans to increase installed capacity to 120MW. The project is managed by Andritz in consortium with SACEEM.
Venezuela Venezuela’s hydropower sector has been struggling with declining capacity due to economic challenges and structural neglect of key infrastructure, such as the 10,200MW Guri Dam and the Caroní River cascade. So recent efforts have been focused on restoring existing facilities, such as the reactivation of the General José Antonio Páez hydroelectric complex in Barinas, adding 120MW to the grid. In December 2024, the Latin American Development Bank also authorised a US$380 million loan to help improve the efficiency and extend the operational life of the country’s Simón Bolívar plant.
Formalized through treaties in 1906 and 1944, Mexico and the United States agreed to jointly manage the upper Rio Grande basin. But more than a century later, much has changed. While regional conditions and national priorities have evolved significantly since the 1940s, the interpretation of the 1944 treaty has not kept pace – posing challenges for effective water management today, according to new research by Sánchez et al. in Water International. The Rio Grande basin has since made it
to the list of the most endangered basins in the world, with studies showing its natural flow has been reduced by at least 80% annually. And with more persistent droughts, erratic rainfall and increased heat likely to be the norm going forwards, increasing water scarcity has raised’ legal and constitutional questions’ not only over the supposed ownership of water, but over priorities for water uses and users. Indeed, conditions are described as being particularly bad for Mexico. Three times since 1994 it has had to delay water deliveries until the following five-year cycle because it had fallen into water ‘debt’ with the US. A more suitable approach could see the
Treaty evolving into a more adaptable and beneficial mechanism for sharing the waters of the Rio Grande under the current uncertain and water-scarce conditions, which are expected to prevail into the future. Committing to delivering fixed amounts of water, the authors stress, simply does not make sense in a basin that cannot provide additional water in response to expected future growth. Ultimately, the two countries must recognise that the system needs both more flexibility and greater reliability in the amount and timing of water deliveries to both countries. This will require a major change in
the way both countries manage water resources in the border region and will require time and accountability from federal and state governments in both countries. Mexico, as the treaty prescribes, shoulders the greater burden for ensuring reliable water deliveries to Texas. “At every political level things have
Above: Dried up Rio Grande River in 2022. The basin is listed as one of the most endangered basins in the world, with studies showing its natural flow has been reduced by at least 80% annually
changed,” Sanchez et al state. “The treaty cannot bring or create more water; climate change is reducing water availability on both sides of the border; existing practices and uses cannot continue without significant changes in the extant lax governance systems; and with the model of intensive and extensive agriculture, little will be accomplished without cooperation”. According to the authors, both countries need to acknowledge that in its current form the Treaty is inadequate and needs to evolve to meet the changing needs of the Lower Rio Grande basin. There needs to be mutual commitment to developing an adaptive framework that flexibly accounts for unpredictable climatic changes, as well as growing populations and shifting economic demands. In addition, the involvement of
stakeholders representing diverse interests – including from agriculture, industry, non-governmental organizations, municipal and state governments, and academia – is critical for achieving more effective and balanced negotiations over transboundary waters.
References
Rosario Sanchez, Stephen P. Mumme & Gabriel Eckstein (2025) The extraordinary drought provision and the future of the Rio Grande water deliveries under the 1944 US–Mexico water treaty: an exploratory policy analysis, Water International, 50:2, 171-188, DOI: 10.1080/02508060.2025.246505
References
2025 World Hydropower Outlook - Opportunities to advance net zero. International Hydropower Association.
www.hydropower.org
Above: Guri Dam in Venezuela
Designing a Digital Transformation Strategy for Hydropower Generation in Colombia Edgar Guevara Pabón, Bladhimir Cortés González Luis Daniel Benavides Navarro, Iván Camilo Durán Tovar, Andagustin Marulanda Guerra. Volume 13, 2025. IEEE Access.10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3555537
18 | August 2025 |
www.waterpowermagazine.com
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