MCALLEN, Texas — Highlighting the North American Development Bank as a premier blueprint for cross-border collaboration, Salomon Torres, owner of Harlingen-based Soluciones Consulting, told the binational financial institution’s board of directors that its investments in Lower Rio Grande Valley water infrastructure will be remembered as a historic turning point for the region.
Speaking during the public comment period of a recent NADBank board meeting at the McAllen Convention Center,Torres praised the bank’s binational leadership and staff for partnering with state authorities to deliver capital to local water providers. Torres, who was introduced to the board by NADBank Director of Public Affairs Jesse Hereford, pointed to the bank's structure as a role model for how the United States and Mexico can constructively address shared challenges.
“This is one of the fantastic models of cooperation between our two countries, between communities on the border, and between the two federal governments that cooperate in such a constructive way to celebrate,” Torres said during his public comments. “You put your money behind it, and it's quite commendable.”
Torres urged federal officials and board members to ensure that the bank’s targeted infrastructure funding isn't a one-time initiative.
“We look 25, 30 years down the line, and you're going to go back and look at this award and this investment as a historic turning point for where investments were very properly laid out,” Torres said. “Looking forward 25 to 30 years, we hope that this is not a one-time investment in the region. We hope that it becomes a frequent return on investment or return on your efforts to make this region grow.”
Following his public testimony, Torres elaborated on the broader policy implications in an interview with the Rio Grande Guardian, emphasizing that small, locally governed entities often face steep administrative hurdles when applying for federal funding.
Torres, a former long-time congressional staff director, represents clients in federal affairs, including the La Feria Irrigation District in Cameron County. He explained that NADBank’s professional staff provided crucial technical and engineering support to help local water districts navigate complex grant and loan applications.
“These irrigation districts, like a lot of smaller entities that are public entities, they really need a lot of support from outside parties—whether they're engineers, whether they're consultants, whether they're different types of professionals—in order to even take advantage of these funding opportunities,” Torres told the Guardian. “One of the things that NADBank has done is provided a very strong and professional cadre of individuals helping the irrigation districts see them through the application process.”
Torres also reminded the board that irrigation districts are democratic bodies subject to unique local operational constraints.
“Remember, these irrigation districts are governed not by one person, but governed by an elected board of individuals, many of which are farmers who have very significant voices to help the irrigation districts make good choices,” Torres noted during public comment. “So you're dealing with very democratic bodies that represent the voices in that region that is going to benefit from their investment.”
In the case of the La Feria Irrigation District, the combined financial assistance package totals $12 million. The district received $6 million from NADBank’s Water Resilience Fund paired with a matching $6 million grant from the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB).
Torres detailed how the $12 million allocation will be deployed to modernize aging agricultural water delivery systems in Cameron County.
“They will be using a total of $12 million—$6 million from the NADBank, $6 million from the Texas Water Development Board—to convert five earthen canals that currently store water from the Rio Grande River into pipelines,” Torres told the Guardian. “Those canals have depleted their useful lifespan as far as concrete lining, and so they need to be completely converted to pipeline to conserve a significant amount of acre-feet of water over the years.”
The modernization comes as irrigation districts across the Rio Grande Valley adapt to shifting regional demographics.
“The La Feria Irrigation District, like other smaller districts around the valley, is experiencing a tremendous amount of transition in the amount of users for the water,” Torres explained. “They used to be significant agricultural water suppliers with some municipal water supply. Now it's starting to become more municipal use of water, so each small district has a challenge to adjust to the changing demographics. In the case of La Feria, they still have a significant number of farmers, so they need to ensure that there are adequate water supplies coming to meet their water allotments for the irrigation cycles for the year.”
Torres commended NADBank leadership for collaborating directly with state agencies like the TWDB to pool resources, multiplying the project's total impact across South Texas.
“I think the leadership at NADBank needs to be given full credit for this,” Torres said. “They knew that the anticipated number of requests for funding were going to exceed what they were willing and able to put into grants and loans. So the fact that they partnered with the state government is significant in that they basically leveraged each other's investment.Now the impact will be a lot bigger, and the amount of acre-feet of water saved for posterity is even more significant.”
Torres concluded that the success of NADBank’s infrastructure funding strategy demonstrates how the U.S. and Mexico can expand binational cooperation into other vital policy sectors.
“This is a great model for other areas of policy, where the two countries need to collaborate more,” Torres said. “Many other areas are very controversial—whether it's law enforcement or protection of the environment. This area of investing in infrastructure has been a model of success, and it needs to be replicated. Taking this model shows that it is possible for the two countries to collaborate even more actively in other areas, whether it's housing or medical care. NADBank is showing us the way with their work.”
