PANAMA — An intense drought related to this year’s El Nino phenomenon has precipitously lowered the level of Panama’s Gatun Lake, forcing the country’s Canal Authority to impose draft limits this week on ships moving through the waterway’s recently expanded locks.
“As for the future, it is difficult to forecast,” Paton continued. “But we are observing in the canal area that climatic events are becoming increasingly extreme. … The biggest droughts and the eight or nine largest storms have occurred in the last 20 years, in the same way that 2014 to 2016 were the driest years in the canal’s history.”El Nino is a recurring phenomenon in which warm ocean temperatures in the Pacific lead to drier than usual conditions in some areas and wetter in others.
The limits affect only the Cocoli and Agua Clara Locks, a multibillion-dollar project inaugurated in 2016 to accommodate the larger Neopanamax ships. On average, 7 1/2 vessels move through those locks daily day, though there have been days with as many as 12 crossings. The canal and most Panamanians rely on rains over a watershed of more than 3,000 square kilometres — covered with forests, rivers and lakes — that generates 95% of the water consumed by Panama City and Colon, whose metro areas combined are home to nearly half the country’s population of just over 4 million.
“This has helped us alleviate the effect for the moment,” Vargas said. “In the medium term, we will continue with reforestation programs in the basin” that have already resulted in more than 17,000 acres of plantings.
your last line 'and newspapers have picked sides'. NP is confused though. on one hand they publish sensible pieces like yours. then they run rubbish like the Panama Canal water level story yest'day. doesn't global warming lead to higher water? please try and talk sense into them.
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