Panama City.- The scarcity of rains pushed the Panama Canal to reduce to 32 the number of vessels that since this Sunday cross the interoceanic highway daily, a measure that, in addition to reducing the income of the canal, key to the public coffers, will predictably increase the maritime traffic jam.
The measure came into force after midnight, when, as usual, fifty boats were visible in the Bay of Panama, in the Pacific Ocean, in a line waiting their turn to cross the Canal, lighting up the horizon like a coastal city. .
“It is important to note that a reduction in the number of daily transits over a prolonged period will increase the waiting time for some vessels, particularly those that do not obtain a reservation,” warned the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in the notice. issued this week about the new restriction.
Under normal conditions, the daily transit average is between 35 and 36 vessels, as explained last month by the Canal administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez, so the new measure that comes into force today translates into a reduction of between 3 and 4 ships a day.
“There is water, but nowhere to store it,” a Canal worker told EFE at the original Miraflores locks, which have been in operation since the inauguration in 1914 of the road built by the United States.
This morning, one of the vessels that went through the locks was a bulk carrier with the Panamanian flag, which in about an hour, after paying some 150,000 dollars, advanced guided by tugboats while it was taking place, with the opening and closing of the large gates, filling and emptying of water.
It ascended through sections of different heights up to 27 meters above sea level, and then sailed between eight and ten hours until it reached the Caribbean.
The Panama Canal connects 180 maritime routes that reach 1,920 ports in 170 countries, and about 3% of world trade passes through it. In fiscal year 2022, the Canal delivered to the Panamanian Government the historic annual amount of 2,494.4 million dollars.
In the notification warning of the restrictions “until further notice”, the ACP specified that every day 22 of the ships will pass through the Miraflores Panamax locks, and 10 will do so through the larger Neopanamax locks, inaugurated in 2016 after the expansion of the Canal. .
LACK OF RAIN
Panama’s climate system is governed by a rainy season and a dry season. The first begins in May when the cycle is normal and lasts approximately until November, and the second goes from December to April, except for the Caribbean side, where it rains almost all year.
The Panama Canal Authority explained that it was necessary to take the new measures “despite the arrival of the rainy season on the Isthmus of Panama and the continuous water saving measures that the ACP has implemented in recent months to mitigate the adverse effects of the prolonged dry season in the Canal basin.
For the transit of more than 14,000 ships a year, the Canal is fed by the artificial lakes Gatún (1913) and Alhajuela (1935), which also supply water to the Panamanian capital, the metropolitan area and surrounding areas, that is, to nearly half the population of this country of 4.2 million.
But they are insufficient, and it is necessary to search for new storage sources in a country, Panama, which is the fifth in the world with the highest amount of rainfall, the first in Central America. Nor is it immune to the effect of the climate crisis.
The manager of the Water Division of the Panama Canal, Erick Córdoba, explained, according to the internal publication of Canal El Faro, that an “extensive dry season” is being experienced, since it has been five and a half months in which no Significant rains were registered in the basin of the highway, two weeks less than the longest season on record.
Thus, Córdoba noted, “we would face a very difficult 2024 if the level of the lakes is not recovered, after all the liquid that has been necessary to use in recent months” with “almost zero” rains. EFE