The Panama Canal has temporarily limited the number of new spaces of reserved passage to help alleviate a bottleneck of ships waiting to transit without reservation. The waterway authority has indicated that they have decided to take this measure due to the drought.

The authorities announced a few days ago the entry into force of new restrictions on the transit of ships. In this way, the number of daily permits has been reduced from 16 ships a day to 14. The main reason is that this gigantic infrastructure that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans requires a large amount of water to operate, some 193 million liters. for each of the nearly 12,000 annual transits that occur.

A decision that has caused a traffic jam of commercial vessels seeking to pass through the canal, one of the busiest commercial passages in the world. Companies, which normally use the waterway, are now looking for alternative routes, according to executives and data.

Until August 10, there were 161 ships near the canal, an increase from the 90 boats normally seen during the rainy season, officials told Reuters. The Refinitiv Eikon data showed at least 40 more ships approaching the passage.