The low water level of rivers is affecting the Panama Canal, whose restrictions in draft for the ships that go through it has caused 40 million dollars in expenses.
According to the executive vice president of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Carlos Vargas, so far this year, the interoceanic route has reported the driest summer in history, although the third set of locks has three containers to reuse water in each of them.
He noted that the effects of climate change have affected the country since the 1970s, especially due to the low water level of the Chagres River, the main tributary to the canal basin.
In that context, ACP Director for Hydric Capacity Daniel Muschett referred to the project of multipurpose reservoirs in the Indio River’s basin, whose hydrologic feasibility study is being carried out by the company Ingenieros Tecnicos, S.A.
However, the Farmers’ Coordinator for Life opposes the development of the plan, because it claims that they want to ‘appropriate the river to sell us water later.’