The Panama Canal also suffers from drought: the lack of rain forces to reduce the transit of ships to save on filling water

Climate change ends up affecting almost every activity that takes place on the planet. As we have seen, it is having repercussions on the AMOC, the Atlantic current, which is slowing down. And if the climate crisis is suffered by the oceans, the same happens with human activities on the sea. This is the case of the Panama Canal and it is because it does not rain.

The lack of rainfall has led the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) to reduce to 32 the number of vessels that have been crossing the interoceanic route daily since this Sunday. Under normal conditions, the daily transit average is between 35 and 36 vessels.

Save water in the rainy season

And that, in theory, Panama is in the rainy season. But the fact is that the canal basin, made up of the Alajuela and Gatún lakes, has received less rainfall than in 2016 and 2019, when restrictions also had to be adopted.

But it is the first time that those responsible for the canal, inaugurated in 1914, have taken such a preventive measure.. It's all about saving water. In addition, and with the same purpose, it has been decided to restrict the draft to 13.41 meters (it is the depth that the submerged part of a ship reaches in the water), a measure that will be applied in the next 10 months.

“If I continue passing 34, 35, 36, 38 ships a day, which is what we usually do, then the lake will continue to consume the water that I have to store, to finish the lake as high as possible in December,” The deputy administrator of the ACP, Ilya Marotta, explained to CNN.

Less daily traffic, more traffic jam

Fewer daily boats means more waiting (even jam) and therefore a slowdown in ship traffic. The new measure, which came into force this Sunday, translates into a reduction of between 3 and 4 ships per day.

The ACP has warned this in the notice issued this week about the new restriction and sent to its regular customers: “A reduction in the number of daily transits for a prolonged period will increase the waiting time for some vessels, particularly those that do not get a reservation.”

The Panama Canal connects 180 maritime routes that reach 1,920 ports in 170 countries. Around 3% of world trade passes through its locks.

Less ships, less income

In the notification warning of the restrictions “until further notice”, the ACP specified that each 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. .

The measures adopted will decrease the income of the channel, key for the Panamanian public coffers. In fiscal year 2022, the Panama Canal delivered to the Government the historic annual amount of 2,494.4 million dollars (about 2,260 million euros).

It doesn't rain in Panama

So far in 2023, in five and a half months there has been no significant rainfall in the Panama Canal Hydrographic Basin. That is two weeks less than the longest dry season on record, which lasted six months, explains the manager of the Panama Canal Water Division, Erick Córdoba, in El Faro, the Canal's news magazine.

We would face a very difficult 2024 if we do not manage to recover the level of the lakes”

“We would face a very difficult 2024 if the level of the lakes cannot be recovered, after all the liquid that has been necessary to use in recent months” with “almost zero” rains, Córdoba wrote.

Hard to be optimistic because since June 8, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the start of an El Niño event. That reduces the chances of above-average rainfall for the remainder of the rainy season.

2022 already gives a clue. The last quarter of the rainy season last year was 25% below the historical average, reports the Panamanian newspaper La Prensa. The first months of this season (April, May and June) occupy the second place among the driest in the historical record.

We never knew what year a case like the one we are experiencing now would occur, but it could happen at any time.”

Freshwater scarcity is real. “It is an issue that the Panama Canal has been warning about for many years.. We simply never knew in what year a case like the one we are experiencing now would occur, but it could happen at any time,” said the Canal's administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez Morales, last June.

The consequences of reducing the draft

The lack of precipitation has affected the artificial lakes that feed the Panama Canal. These supply more than 50% of the population of Panama, so the draft was also reduced to 13.41 meters (44 feet).. And that matters.

The reduction in draft offered to the huge merchant ships that cross the interoceanic route has consequences. With less draft, ships are forced to reduce their cargo volume when crossing the Canal.

So that 3% of world trade that uses this seaway is going to suffer the consequences. If there was traffic jam from time to time, now there will be more because fewer ships will pass each day; boats that, in addition, will do so with less cargo due to the reduction in draft. It needs to rain in Panama.