>The canal’s travails reflect how climate change is altering global trade flows. Drought created chokepoints last year on the Mississippi River and the Rhine in Europe. In the UK, rising sea levels are elevating the risk of flooding along the Thames. Melting ice is creating new shipping routes in the Arctic.
>Under normal circumstances, the Panama Canal handles about 3% of global maritime trade volumes and 46% of containers moving from Northeast Asia to the U.S. East Coast. The channel is Panama’s biggest source of revenue, bringing in $4.3 billion in 2022.
>To allow for 24 vessels a day through the dry season, the canal will release water from Lake Alajuela, a secondary reservoir. If the rains begin to pick up in May, the canal might be able to start increasing traffic, according to Córdoba.
>But those are short-term fixes. In the long term, the primary solution to chronic water shortages will be to dam up the Indio River and then drill a tunnel through a mountain to pipe fresh water 5 miles into Lake Gatún, the canal’s main reservoir.
>The project, along with additional conservation measures, will cost about $2 billion, Córdoba estimates. He says it will take at least six years to dam up and fill the site. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a feasibility study.
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>The canal’s travails reflect how climate change is altering global trade flows. Drought created chokepoints last year on the Mississippi River and the Rhine in Europe. In the UK, rising sea levels are elevating the risk of flooding along the Thames. Melting ice is creating new shipping routes in the Arctic.
>Under normal circumstances, the Panama Canal handles about 3% of global maritime trade volumes and 46% of containers moving from Northeast Asia to the U.S. East Coast. The channel is Panama’s biggest source of revenue, bringing in $4.3 billion in 2022.
>To allow for 24 vessels a day through the dry season, the canal will release water from Lake Alajuela, a secondary reservoir. If the rains begin to pick up in May, the canal might be able to start increasing traffic, according to Córdoba.
>But those are short-term fixes. In the long term, the primary solution to chronic water shortages will be to dam up the Indio River and then drill a tunnel through a mountain to pipe fresh water 5 miles into Lake Gatún, the canal’s main reservoir.
>The project, along with additional conservation measures, will cost about $2 billion, Córdoba estimates. He says it will take at least six years to dam up and fill the site. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a feasibility study.
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