ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico -- The muddy water of the Rio Grande that meanders through the Southwest is liquid gold to many. Farmers rely on it for crops. City leaders in Texas and New Mexico need it for their residents and count on it for urban growth. Species depend on it for life.

Recent drought and surging populations have complicated the fight over Rio Grande water. A fight between the U.S. and Mexico over the amount of water allowed to flow through has complicated management efforts. With that in mind, a plan is in the works to bring the governors of Texas, New Mexico and the Mexican states of Chihuaha, Coahuila and Tamaulipas together to draft a water agreement.

"I'm very concerned by the lack of attention Mexico's federal government and the U.S. government are giving to water issues at the border," said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who backs the effort. Mr. Richardson wants the five governors to draft an agreement that would cover water use, conservation and management of the river. He hopes to rally the leaders as chairman of the U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference. If successful, Mr. Richardson and others say, the agreement would be a breakthrough for the border.

Mr. Richardson's Mexican counterpart in the effort is Alberto Szekely, a former Mexican diplomat who has worked as a special negotiator for transboundary water issues and an adviser to the foreign minister. "The most critical issue is that we don't have a law of the river," Mr. Szekely said. "The water has been given on the basis of concessions instead of water law."

That creates a problem, especially given that the bilateral institution created as a referee for treaty disputes over water -- the International Boundary and Water Commission -- has a limited mandate, he said. "It only distributes the water and manages the hydrology infrastructure that holds that water," Mr. Szekely said. "But it has absolutely no mandate to deal with the sustainable management of the resource."

Sally Spencer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. section of the commission, argues that her agency is taking an increasingly active role on water management issues, especially given the drought. She points to language in recent agreements between the United States and Mexico in an ongoing fight over Mexico's water-sharing obligations under a 1944 treaty. The pacts, which called for transfers of water to the United States, also addressed water conservation and the commission's drought management role.

The pacts are amendments to a 1944 treaty stipulating that the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River. Mexico has not been meeting its commitment to send the 350,000 acre-feet annually and now owes the United States 1.3 million acre-feet. An acre-foot is enough to flood an acre of land with a foot of water.

Mexican officials have said their states simply don't have enough water to send. But Texas officials cite recent heavy rainfall and point to satellite images they say prove there is enough water for Mexico to pay a sizable portion of its water debt. The Texas fight shows the need for state-level cooperation on border water management, said Bill Hume, Mr. Richardson's director of policy and issues.

The question is whether it's feasible to get five governors to sit down and agree on an issue that already has produced bitter battles. Mr. Hume acknowledged that "it would be naive to believe this would be easy."