Water is critical for the Canal and the country: two new proposals

PANAMA - In Brief 20 Jan 2020 by Marco Fernandez

Water is a scarce resource: it is evident for most of the citizens (and authorities) of the world, but Panamanian governments for decades were adamant, in general, to adjust the tariffs to price in that scarcity in the relevant markets. Last week two state-owned institutions stepped forward to deal with this issue: one agency is the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), and the other, the Water and Sewage Institute (IDAAN). The ACP proposal The ACP announced the imposition of a surcharge per ton (which will be in place by February 15) for large vessels to account for their use of this resource during the transit along the Canal. Water is spilled into the Pacific or the Caribbean Sea every time a ship passes through the locks after navigating along the Gatun Lake, a human-made-mostly fresh-water body with an area of 450 square kilometers, which is the primary source of water to the Canal and is fed by rain and by the flow of nearby Chagres river. The level of GatĂșn is now below 90 feet below the minimum required for "normal transits" this time of the year. The situation is better understood when compared to alternative uses of water in the country. A lockage is a term used to define the opening of a lock to allow the water from the rivers and lakes to flow into the oceans: Every seven lockages pour the equivalent to one day of civilian use of the population in the Metropolitan Region of the country (around two-thirds of the national population). The crux of this situation is that the increase in temperature in the area of influence of the Canal (1.5 degree Celsius in the last eight years) produced more evaporation of the Gatun lake than the historical pattern incorporated in th...

Now read on...

Register to sample a report

Register