In interviews with the AFP, the administrator of the Canal, Ricaurte Vásquez, and the Minister for Canal Affairs, Jose Ramón Icaza, address the challenges of the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal faces, 110 years after its inauguration, the threat of running out of water as a result of climate change, amid international conflicts and competition from other trade routes, its top leaders told AFP on Thursday.
The Panamanian road, which operates on fresh water, celebrated its anniversary on Thursday as it recovers from a drought that, in late 2023, forced a reduction from 38 to 22 the daily number of ships transiting the channel.
Authorities plan to build a reservoir on a nearby river to provide more water to the canal, but more than 2,000 people would have to be relocated. The same basin supplies drinking water to half of the four million Panamanians.
In interviews with the AFP, the administrator of the Canal, Ricaurte Vásquez, and the Minister for Canal Affairs, Jose Ramón Icaza, address these issues.
What are the major challenges of the channel?
Vásquez: The issue of water is a national challenge. There are ways to resolve this so that it is not a conflict between human consumption and transit through the Panama Canal. We estimate [that] by the end of the year we must be back to normal [in transits] if the rain pattern is maintained.
Icaza: The main challenge is to be able to guarantee water security and maintain confidence in the route so that our customers and users always prefer the Panama Canal. In that sense, we have been working, not now, almost 90 years on different alternatives.
Among these alternatives is the Rio Indio reservoir, how is that project going?
Vasquez: Respect for people’s rights is ahead of the development of any infrastructure project. Sustainability starts for human sustainability and for us to respect the rights of people in the basin is the first thing we have in mind.
Icaza: We have been moving forward in the hands of first talking to the communities that could be affected if they carry out the project. Likewise we are analyzing other alternatives so that we can then give that water security for the next 50 years.
Q. Do you feel threatened with projects such as the Mayan Train in Mexico, the hypothetical Nicaraguan channel or the dry canal in Colombia?
Vasquez: We know we’re not alone on the court. Threats exist of all kinds, some more visible than others. But 110 years of continuous operation and 500 years in the trade tradition are elements that no other country can bring to the table.
Icaza: These ideas have always been and what I have always commented on is that as the Panama Canal focuses on making its investments, on ensuring water security and, therefore, having that confidence of the markets, must have business and must always move forward.
Q: How do international conflicts affect the channel?
Vasquez: Everything that happens in Ukraine or the Middle East, or a trade conflict between the United States and China affects us. [With the war in Ukraine] All that has been the liquefied natural gas traffic passing from the Gulf of Mexico to Asia through the Panama Canal was lost because it now goes from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe [for sanctions on Russia]. That there are going to be threats, there’s going to be threats and you have to be vigilant.
Icaza: The war in Ukraine is affecting us […], but we also have the situation that is taking place in the Middle East, which is affecting the Suez Canal and the whole issue of security, that has generated some benefit for Panama.
Panama’s DNA
The canal was built by the United States, which supported Panama to achieve its independence from Colombia in 1903. After a generational struggle, Panama regained the road in 1999 after an agreement signed in 1977 by Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos and then-US president Jimmy Carter.
It is estimated that 6% of the world’s maritime trade passes through the Panamanian route, whose main users are the United States and China.
Q: What has the channel contributed to world trade?
Vasquez: We have brought our geographical position to the world, but beyond all this, I believe it has given meaning to the country’s raison d’etre.
Icaza: The Panama Canal has been part of our DNA as a country since we were born as a Republic in 1903. Since we were the province of Colombia, there was already talk of building a canal. It therefore represents an important component of our identity as a country.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo