Cleaning up the U.S.-Mexico Border: NADBank’s Efforts to Close the Wastewater Infrastructure Gap

The North American Development Bank (NADBank) was established in 1994 to “cleanup” the border region, which was characterized at the time as an open sewer. This research examines NADBank’s cleanup efforts to date by analyzing data from published reports, articles, and archival records using descriptive statistics and geospatial analysis. Overall, NADBank has provided almost $760 million in loans and grants to support the implementation of 133 wastewater infrastructure projects that have a total construction cost of $1.9 billion. Although a substantial investment, these projects have not fully addressed the wastewater infrastructure needs of the border, estimated in 1993 to be between $4.3 and $6 billion. However, these infrastructure projects have resulted in some tangible improvements in water quality in major transboundary rivers. Unfortunately, the border region continues to be plagued by discharges of raw sewage and additional investment in infrastructure and institutional capacity is needed to fully resolve the problems