Long delays at Panama Canal after drought hits global shipping route

[Social Media]

 

Commercial ships are facing long queues and delays to travel through the Panama Canal as a lengthy drought in the Central American country has led to a cut in the number of vessels able to pass through one of the world’s most important trading routes.

In a fresh demonstration of the impact of the climate crisis on global business and trade, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), which manages the waterway, introduced restrictions on the number of transiting vessels as a result of the drought.

 

An extended dry season has reduced the availability of water, required to allow vessels to pass through the canal’s locks, which has triggered a logjam of ships awaiting their turn.

 

The canal is favoured by many shippers as it usually reduces cost and transit times, especially for large retailers and energy companies that trade between China and the rest of Asia, and the US.

The ACP has said it faces “unprecedented challenges”, adding that the severity of the drought had “no historical precedence”, even compared with the last drought in 2019-20.

In late July, the state-owned ACP limited the number of vessels passing through the waterway each day to an average of 32, down from the usual 36. It also restricted the permitted maximum depth of ships.

The restrictions led to a bottleneck of ships waiting for their turn to cross and sent companies scrambling to find alternative routes.

 

FULL STORY

[Tug]

Wow that’s a big deal!que the climate deniers……..

[VocalNeal]

Is it weather or climate? At the moment it is weather. If it is still happening in 30 years it is climate.

They built an extra parallel canal with bigger locks to increase traffic so the amount of water used has increased???? Which has to be replaced by rain. Had they not done so how would they be fairing today?

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29 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Is it weather or climate? At the moment it is weather. If it is still happening in 30 years it is climate.

They built an extra parallel canal with bigger locks to increase traffic so the amount of water used has increased???? Which has to be replaced by rain. Had they not done so how would they be fairing today?

 

"A trio of water-saving basins will ensure the new locks reuse 60 percent of that water, replenishing the canal and helping to ensure that officials won’t need to flood communities to generate the water lost if the locks dumped into the ocean.

Aleman says the extra water needed for the expansion will raise the banks of 160-square-mile Gatun Lake by only 18 inches, and even that will only occur once a year, at the end of the rainy season."

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15413300

[JackGats]

Isn't the canal connecting two oceans? If so how can there be a lack of water? I thought that the ice caps were melting and the oceans were rising. Now the oceans are drying up.

[Tug]

8 minutes ago, JackGats said:

Isn't the canal connecting two oceans? If so how can there be a lack of water? I thought that the ice caps were melting and the oceans were rising. Now the oceans are drying up.

You are mistaken they lack water to operate the canal locks that raise and lower the ships to accommodate the differences in elevation