One border crisis averted? How Juárez and El Paso became sister cities.

Ciudad Juárez, Mexico; and El Paso, Texas – At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert two cities are both divided and united by water.

The Rio Grande helped form the town of Paso del Norte in the 16th century, but centuries later it became the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

Beneath the ground, however, the two cities still share the Hueco Bolson aquifer. In the arid climate, fresh groundwater from the aquifer has been crucial in helping them grow. In recent decades they have been helping each other study and manage the resource as it becomes even more important in the face of climate change.

Aquifers are difficult to manage even in the best of circumstances – they can stretch for thousands of miles, sink for thousands of feet, and they’re entirely underground. When you’re measuring something that crosses an international border it becomes even more difficult…

Click here to read the full article.

• ← How Texas wants to save football from concussions
• Once a nation of joiners, Americans are now suspicious of those who do →