Panama Canal: drought could limit the daily transit of ships

He Panama Canal reported that it could apply measures to limit the daily transit of ships through the interoceanic route in the event of a drought situation, in line with the water saving strategy that will also be maintained during the rainy months in the Central American country.

”Currently we transit between 35 and 36 ships per day; it would be necessary to go down to 32 and 28 transits per day”, warned Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, administrator of the Panama Canal, which is a important global maritime trade route whose main users are the United States and China.

In a statement, the Panamanian authority said that it is closely following the development of the weather events that impact the country, especially those that affect the availability of water in the canal basin. According to forecasts, the situation could worsen due to the arrival of the El Niño phenomenonwhich brings with it the early start of the 2024 rainy season.

The entity refers to the recent declaration of a climate emergency decreed by the government of Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo. “It reinforces what has been commented from the Panama Canal, in the sense that the scarcity of fresh water is real”says the statement.

Since last January 3, the interoceanic highway implemented a series of water saving measures in its operations to guarantee the water resource with which a large part of the Panamanian population is supplied and which is essential for the operation of the highway. .

”In the Panamax locks we have been making crossed lockages, that is, combining the water from one side of one lock to another. Regarding the Neopanamax locks, we are reviewing the direction of transit and the scheduling of the north and south vessels to make the maximum use of the water,” explained Vásquez Morales.

It is an issue that “has been warned for many years” and that “we never knew in what year a case like the one we are experiencing now would occur, but it could happen at any time,” said Vásquez Morales.

The last period of intense drought was in 2019-2020. The Panama Canal statistics show that during the last decade an extensive dry period was experienced, including the second and fifth driest years in the last 72 years.

“If we analyze the numbers for 2023, the recently ended month of May was the driest since 1950, which places us in a delicate situation, considering that at that time the waterway did not operate with the neopanamax locks”, said the administrator.