Panama, thirst for the canal
Audio 02:30
Transport of goods on the Panama Canal, in June 2020. AP Photo / Arnulfo Franco
By: Marina Mielczarek
7 min
A victim of increasingly severe droughts, the Panama Canal, the only place in the world that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, is already seeing its flows slow down.
It's urgent.
Construction of an artificial lake or factory to desalt the sea, all solutions will be examined to save this area where nearly 3% of world trade passes.
Publicity
He spent his comeback on television, at home in Panama, but also abroad thanks to social networks.
He is José Reyes, the vice-president of this major project to redevelop the Panama Canal.
It is because today, there is an emergency.
For two years (unheard of in this 77 km channel) between northern Colombia and southern Mexico and Guatemala have fallen torrential rains followed by droughts much longer than usual.
The water overflows or evaporates.
No technical means had been planned to be able to recover this water and keep it in the existing basins.
This imbalance threatens the very existence of transit since each passage of a boat requires the contribution of millions of cubic meters of water.
This is explained by the difference in level between the two oceans, Atlantic and Pacific.
2019, record year
: 450 million tonnes of goods, $ 3.4 billion in revenue
Joined by RFI, José Reyes reiterates his call to engineers around the world: a way must be invented to provide nearly a billion cubic meters of additional water.
“
Our main challenge
,” he says
, “is having to use fresh water rather than sea water to fill the canal's deficit.
Indeed, the Panama Canal Administration
does not only manage the simple passage of maritime transport, it is also responsible for all drinking water in the region!
We have to supply the capital Panama Ciudad, but also the big city, further in the region.
In all, there are nearly 1.2 million consumers.
Several solutions are being considered
, explains José Reyes, who draws on his expertise as a specialist in water engineering.
I am eagerly awaiting proposals from engineering firms, they are coming from all over the world.
We are offered the construction of a seawater desalination plant, either the construction of a third artificial lake fed by groundwater or even a large purification station.
Two artificial lakes already exist, unfortunately we cannot dig them.
Because if we widen them, the mountains around could collapse, it's too dangerous.
In the end
, he concludes,
the selected project will be the most environmentally friendly project
”.
Desalination plant, artificial lake, wastewater treatment, drinking water pipelines
All ideas will be welcome.
But on condition that you respect the environment.
Specifications are completed.
The Canal Administration drafted it after consultation with foresters, the unions of ecological parks around the capital Panama.
The authorities have understood that they have no interest in being criticized as in 2016, phase of widening the canal, for having attacked nature and displaced Indian villages.
Two artificial lakes already exist in a preserved vegetation environment all around the capital to serve as locks along the 77 km of the canal.
For David Guerrero, professor of logistics and maritime transport in Paris, in any case, if this water reserve does not arrive quickly, the prices will continue to rise: “
This deficit of water
generated by evaporation begins to increase. make felt on maritime traffic.
Transport companies have to pay surcharges of up to $ 20,000 for the most expensive.
However, the toll is already costing them dearly, $ 1 million for the largest freighters,
$
200,000 for the smallest. And already
, he regrets,
the number of daily passages has fallen.
At the moment, there are 30 boats a day passing through the locks of the canal, compared to 40 freighters a year ago, before these problems of lack of fresh water worsened.
"
US delivers oil and gas to Japan, China by avoiding Cape Horn
Even today, the United States remains the main customer of the canal with China and Japan to which they deliver oil and gas, avoiding passage through southern America.
In total, that's 11 hours saved on each trip, a whole day compared to passing through the Suez Canal.
In Panama Ciudad, the authorities are giving themselves two years, while specifying that as in all good brands, during the works, the transit remains open ...
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