The Panama Canal administrator said on Wednesday March 20 that he was counting on a return to normal traffic, restricted due to lack of precipitation, before February 2025.
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Since 2023, the Panama Canal has been forced to restrict the daily passage of cargo ships on this waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific due to the lack of water in the lakes that feed it, going from 39 at 27 currently.
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“ We hope that before February 2025 the situation can be normalized “, Ricaurte Vasquez told the press. According to him, in the coming weeks the La Niña meteorological phenomenon, which is characterized in Central America by an increase in precipitation, should replace that of El Niño, which produces the opposite effect. “ Indications are that a moderate La Niña could begin in April, with a greater likelihood of La Niña intensity increasing in July and August. “, did he declare.
However, he tempers an immediate effect on traffic, considering that the maritime industry does not “ can adapt so quickly “. Fresh water is essential to move ships through the locks (up to 26 meters above sea level). For each boat, it is necessary to discharge approximately 200 million liters of fresh water into the ocean, which the canal draws from a hydrographic basin formed by Lakes Gatun and Alajuela.
However, the level of the lakes reached critical thresholds in 2023, the second driest year in the history of the canal inaugurated in 1914, due to the lack of precipitation correlated with the El Niño phenomenon aggravated by global warming.
The level of Alajuela, however, rose by 62 meters in May 2023, the worst record of the year, to 72 m today. That of Gatun is practically unchanged, at 24 m.
The number of ships crossing the Isthmus of Panama on an 80 km canal, which sees 6% of world maritime trade, was recently increased from 24 to 27.
In fiscal year 2023, the Panama Canal recorded $3.344 billion in revenue from ship transit and service provision. “ In the long term we can be optimistic, but in the short term we must be extraordinarily realistic », Cautiously underlined Ricaurte Vasquez.