CITY OF PANAMA — A court ruling could allow construction of a new reservoir to feed the water-starved Panama Canal, but the project could take six years to build, waterway managers said Monday.
The Panama canal has reduced the maximum number of ships traveling through the waterway each day due to a drought that has reduced the supply of fresh water needed to operate the locks.
For years, Panama has wanted to build another reservoir to supplement Gatun Lake’s main water supply, but a 2006 regulation prohibited the expansion of the waterway outside its traditional basin. A recent ruling by Panama’s Supreme Court allowed for a reinterpretation of the boundaries, possibly clearing the way for the work, said canal administrator Ricaurte Vásquez.
“The fact of having a defined basin gives the Panama Canal territorial security that we did not have before,” said Vásquez.
Authorities will still have to consult and gain acceptance of the project by residents of the new site around the Indio River basin. There are approximately 12,000 people living in about 200 villages in the area.
He said that when the project estimated at $1.6 billion can begin “it will depend largely on the work that is done with the communities and inhabitants who live in the areas that could be affected.”
Ilya Espino, deputy administrator of the channel, believes those talks could take a year and a half. Construction could then last three or four years.
It hasn’t rained enough to feed the system of river and stream basins that fill the current system of reservoirs, whose waters in turn fill the locks that lift boats above the ground. The basin also supplies fresh water to Panama City, home to about half of the country’s 4 million residents.
Cutting canal traffic to 31 ships per day from the normal average of 36 to 38 has disrupted global shipping at a time when other major waterways are also having problems. Attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have dismantled a key global trade route, forcing ships to make longer and more expensive voyages around Africa.
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