Despite recent rains easing most of the limitations put in place during last year’s drought, the renowned waterway is still experiencing a water scarcity, according to the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which made this announcement on Wednesday.
“The waterway continues to face the impact of a prolonged dry season from this past year that limited the capacity of daily passages through the canal,” the ACP said in a statement. “Despite the start of the rainy season, the water problem for Panama and its Canal is not over.”
The Panama Canal, which typically handles 6% of all marine trade worldwide, is not like other waterways like the Suez Canal in that it uses rainfall from constructed lakes Gatun and Alajuela to run.
The drought-stricken canal has had to lower the number of commercial vessels that travel through each day as well as the size of each ship’s draft due to the El Nino weather event that occurred this past year.
On the other hand, starting on July 11, the agency will permit a vessel’s draft to be increased to 14.6 meters (48 feet), and starting on August 5, a maximum of 35 ships will be permitted to pass through each day.
The ACP, which oversees the canal, also called for alternative water sources to be identified and storage projects developed.
In the 2023 fiscal year, 511 million tons of cargo passed through the Panama Canal, generating $3.34 billion in revenue.
