The Panama Canal is desperately looking for water to avoid dying, because the decrease in rainfall due to climate change and the El Niño phenomenon They threaten to dry up the route that moves almost 6% of world maritime trade.
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“The great disadvantage of the Panama Canal, as a maritime route, is the fact that we operate with fresh water, while the other maritime routes (such as the Suez Canal) use sea water,” the administrator said Thursday. of the Canal, Ricaurte Vásquez.
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Due to the lack of rain, the Canal restricted the draft of the ships, which will cause a loss of 200 million dollars in its income in 2024. Meanwhile, the projection for this year is estimated at 4.9 billion dollars, indicated Vásquez.
“We have to find solutions to be able to continue being a relevant route for the service of international trade. If we do not adapt, then we are going to perish,” he said in a presentation to the press.
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A crisis?
The draft was restricted a few months ago to 43 feet (13.11 meters), two less than what was previously allowed by this route, inaugurated by the United States in 1914 and in Panamanian hands since December 31, 1999.
“The severity of this crisis is atypical, it is very high. So we are going to think that from now until September 30 of next year, we must be operating with significant restrictions”Vasquez said.
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We have to find solutions to be able to continue being a relevant route for the service of international trade. If we don’t adapt, then we are going to perish.
Of an average of 40 ships that crossed each day in 2022, 32 now pass to save water, the source of energy that moves the ships through the locks. For each ship, 200 million liters are dumped into the sea.
Since 1914, more than a million ships have crossed the route, whose main users are the United States, China, Japan and Chile.
Due to the lower draft, some merchant ships unload hundreds of containers in the Pacific port of Balboa and reload them in Colón (Caribbean), after crossing the Canal.
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The containers are taken by rail from one coast of Panama to the other, which implies delays but not necessarily higher costs for the shipping companies, because although they must pay for transport by train, they pay a lower toll in the Canal because they carry less cargo.
Vásquez said that the merchant “Ever Max”, with the Singapore flag, used this modality this week, which did not prevent it from achieving the record of being the ship with the most cargo that has crossed the road: 17,000 containers after paying 1.5 million dollars in tolls.
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other routes
The administrator expressed that “the lack of water, only measured in terms of tolls, already gives a price of 200 million balboas” (dollars) less in income in 2024.
If the drought and the draft limit are prolonged, the Canal risks losing customers, because the shipping companies “can opt for other routes, we know that this risk exists,” he pointed.
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“But we think that if we find a solution for them relatively soon, it’s not necessarily going to be built immediately. [la solución]but that the market knows that this is indeed being done, should alleviate the long-term concern,” he added.
three cities
The lack of rain has also caused an increase in salinity in the water of the interoceanic highway, which generates other inconveniences.
The Canal watershed, formed by the Gatun and Alhajuela lakes and various rivers, also supplies water to three citiesincluding the capital, where half of the country’s population lives.
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“Every time we open the gate that faces the sea, seawater is mixed with fresh water and the larger the gate, […]the greater the volume of salt water that enters the system,” Vásquez said.
“We have to keep that level of salt water within a certain range, because the water treatment plants do not have desalination capacity,” he added.
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Discarded option
At the locks, the ships are raised 26 meters above sea level to cross the isthmus and are then lowered upon arrival in the other ocean. The water flows in and out of the huge tubs by gravity.
Despite the scarcity of fresh water, The option of the Canal using sea water is ruled out, since it would imply large excavations.
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“Suez was much flatter and it was sand. In our case, it is rock and there is a not very high mountain range, but there is a mountain range and that represents the challenge,” explained Vásquez.
In 1881 a first attempt to open a canal at sea level in Panama began, under the charge of the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of Suez. The work was paralyzed by technical and financial problems and tropical diseases that killed thousands of workers.
A quarter of a century later, construction was resumed by the United States, which added the locks and took 10 years to complete.
AFP AGENCY
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