Water crisis in the Panama Canal is not resolved despite the rains

The administrator of the Panama CanalRicaurte Vásquez, warned this Wednesday that the water crisis suffered by the interoceanic waterway “has not been resolved” despite the arrival of the rainy season.

“Even though it has started to rain, the problem has not been resolved.“, he assured Vasquez in reference to the water crisis facing the country and the waterway and that transcends the beginning of the rainy season due, as he said, “to the current lack of infrastructure to manage this resource at the national level“said a statement from the Panama Canal Authority.

The arrival of the rains has improved the water level of the reservoirs Gatun (1913) and Jewelry (1935) that feed the Canal, which led to the fact that on May 26, for the first time so far in 2024, both lakes rose above the level recorded for the same date in 2023.

Thanks to this, the number of daily transits has progressively increased.

Currently there are 32 steps a day and for next July it is expected that they will increase first to 33 and then to 34, after the seasonal drought of 2023, longer than usual and enhanced by the El Niño phenomenon, forced gradually reduce the number of daily steps, which reached 22 in November.

This is close to the optimal scenario of Panama Canal of 35 and 36 ships per day, a figure that occurs under normal conditions and which the road hopes to reach again in 2025.

Vasquez explained today that although Panama It is the fifth country in the world in which it rains the most, there are a large number of people who lack water in their homes.

Therefore, he emphasized “be aware that this is everyone’s problem and whose solution we must collectively participate in“, highlights the statement.

The administrator gave these statements this Wednesday in the city of Penonomé, about 170 kilometers west of the capital, during an information tour to update on the performance of the waterway in the last year and future projections.

There, communicators and students learned about the initiatives promoted by the Canal for the development of a water program that seeks new sources of water and the increase in water storage capacity to guarantee the availability of the resource and face a growing demand in the of the climate crisis.

The project of a new reservoir

He Panama Canal contemplates the expansion of its hydrographic basin by creating a water reservoir in Río Indio – to the west of the same basin – as the most feasible solution to face the water crisis, but first it must go through a government approval process

However, there is a community of about 2,500 people, who are guaranteed that in the event that some of their properties are going to flood, they will receive compensation with the construction of a new house and the provision of land.

Vásquez referred to this issue today during the information tour when raising the implications of the construction of that reservoir in that area.

“If approval is obtained to build this reservoir, it would be done respecting all the rights of the inhabitants of this basin who are affected by the initiative, and with whom a communication and relationship process will be established to reach agreements.”he explained.

The Administrator maintained that if the inhabitants of the Indio River become part of the Hydrographic Basin of the Panama Canalthese would be invited to be part of the conservation programs that the Canal carries out.

“The community work carried out with the residents of the Canal basin is the greatest achievement that the Canal has had in the 25 years that it has been in Panamanian hands, even above the millions of balboas that it annually delivers to the National Treasury.”, he reflected.