2024-03-07 13:57:49
image copyrightPanama Canal Authority
Caption,
The level of the Panama Canal is the second lowest in the last 110 years.
Article information
- Author, Michelle Fleury
- Role, BBC News
- Reporting from Panamá
-
2 hours
America’s most famous waterway is drying up.
Unlike the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal is fed by a freshwater lake, Gatun Lake, and its water level is falling critically.
During a boat trip on the Gatún, Nelson Guerra, a hydrologist with the Panama Canal Authority, points out a rusty ruler under a tower at the western end of the water.
“The level, as seen on the ruler, is 81.20 feet,” he says. “It should be 1.5 meters more than now.”
On the return trip, the boat passes old tree trunks sticking out of the water. They were never completely logged during the original construction of the lake. Only a few would be visible at this time of year. But in the middle of the dry season, there is a forest of them.
The Panama Canal depends on rainwater, which is in short supply.
The lack of rain and the El Niño weather phenomenon have contributed to the second driest year in the canal’s 110-year history.
Last October was the driest on record. In the canal region it has rained 41% less than normal, and the drought threatens to continue disrupting the traffic of goods worth US$270 billion that circulates each year through the shortcut between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
They have had to introduce water-saving measures, which has meant that fewer ships can pass through the canal every day. This is because water from the lake is needed to operate the canal locks.
Caption,
The hydrologist of the Panama Canal Authority, Nelson Guerra, monitors the water level of Gatun Lake.
Effect on maritime trade
The number of vessels has been reduced from 36 to 24 on average. Additionally, each ship now carries less cargo due to weight restrictions.
The slowdown poses a problem for global trade.
In normal times, regarding 5% of global maritime trade uses the canal, and 40% of U.S. container traffic.
If the route dries up, carriers will be forced to look for alternatives, which will lengthen journey times and raise costs.
And the lack of water is not only a problem for global trade. The Panama Canal Authority also supplies drinking water to half of the country’s population, including residents of the capital, Panama City.
But those responsible for the canal are taking steps to ensure its viability for another century, and beyond.
Caption,
Marotta’s Ilya Espino is leading efforts to ensure the canal has enough water to function.
Plans to conserve water
The head of sustainability for the Panama Canal Authority, Ilya Espino de Marotta, says they are working on finding solutions to ensure that the canal does not run out of water.
“We don’t want it to be a recurring problem. We don’t want traffic or tonnage to decrease,” he says.
The authority has been busy developing a plan to invest $8.5 billion in sustainable projects over the next five years, which it hopes can help the waterway survive even as changes shake the planet.
In relation to climate change, Ilya Espino de Marotta states: “Panama is a very rainy country… but we see a pattern emerging [de reducción de las precipitaciones] that is affecting everywhere. “So we definitely have to prepare for the future.”
One obvious measure is water conservation.
The Panama Canal works by passing ships through a series of locks above sea level fed by Lake Gatun and the smaller Lake Alajuela.
Each ship that passes through the locks uses regarding 50 million gallons of water, and a handful of new locks built in 2016 – the larger Neo-Panamax locks – save regarding 60% of that water.
However, the old Panamax locks remain in operation, and their overhaul would be a major project. Meanwhile, the canal authority has found ways to reuse water from the locks, called cross-filling, saving the equivalent of six crossings a day.
The authority is also considering building reservoirs, its first major project since completing the new set of locks in 2016.
To save more water in the rainy months and increase the supply in drier times, they plan to dam the nearby Indio River and convey the fresh water to Gatún Lake, the canal’s main reservoir. The plan would increase ship traffic by between 12 and 15 a day.
But it won’t be easy to move forward. The project does not yet have approval from Congress, and its construction will take several years to complete.
Another option is to build desalination plants. The lack of rain has increased the salinity of lakes and rivers, a challenge that must be managed given that it is the largest source of drinking water in the country. But that option is expensive and extracting salt from seawater requires an enormous amount of energy.
Planting clouds in the hope of more rain is not even ruled out. The process of implanting large salt particles into clouds to increase precipitation sounds futuristic, but it has been around since the 1940s.
Caption,
José Cervantes’ company had to move cargo by road and rail
There is no better shortcut
A solution must be found so that world trade, which has become more unstable this year, does not become even more so. Trade volumes through the Panama Canal have fallen 49% compared to their peak.
José Cervantes, general director of the Panamanian branch of the Agunsa shipping company, states that its daily operations have been affected. Shipments of two million tons of goods, from textiles to food, have been delayed due to disruptions at the Panama Canal.
He says the problem is that there are no other good shortcuts.
Before the current Red Sea crisis, some ships carrying goods from Asia were diverted through the Suez Canal. With that less secure option, demand for rail and road transportation through Panama has increased.
But José Cervantes affirms that all that unloading and reloading of cargo from ships on trains and trucks increases costs. “And those costs are usually passed on to the consumer,” he says.
If rains arrive in May as expected, the canal plans to increase the number of ships that can pass through its locks, but that is only a short-term solution.
The changes in precipitation patterns serve as a reminder of the major impact that climate change might have on global trade and the long-term future of the Panama Canal.
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