- Due to the low water level in the Panama Canal, ship traffic through the important waterway is to be further reduced.
- The canal administration announced that the number of ship passages that can be booked will be gradually reduced from 30 to 18 per day by February next year.
- Since 1950, there has never been as little rain in October as it has this year.
This will continue: little rainfall is expected until the end of the year. “Despite all the measures taken, the level of Lake Gatun has continued to fall to a level unprecedented for this time of year,” said the Panama Canal Authority.
Legend:
The Panama Canal is an artificial waterway and is of great importance for international shipping.
Keystone/ /Dario Lopez-Mills
It’s not just the number of ship passages that has been reduced in recent months. The maximum draft with which ships are allowed to pass through the canal had also been reduced.
Important for world trade
The approximately 80 kilometer long canal connects the Atlantic and the Pacific in Central America. In normal times, around 14,000 ships pass through the waterway every year. About six percent of world trade passes through the canal. In recent months, less rain and higher temperatures have caused water levels in the man-made Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal to fall, impacting operations.
The Panama Canal begins in Colón in the north of Panama and ends near Panama City in the south. After the opening of the expanded canal in 2016, the waterway has three lock systems through which ships are raised to the level of Lake Gatún, which is 28 meters above sea level, and later lowered again.
Since the expansion of the canal, large tankers and freighters with up to 14,000 containers can also be channeled through the waterway.