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What ails the Panama Canal?
FROM PAGE 14
of January. Before these restrictions were put in place, 36 ships used to use the canal on any given day.
The reason?
According to a notice posted on the Panama Canal’s official website, the “restriction is in response to the challenges posed by the current state of Gatun Lake, which is experiencing unusually low water levels for this time of the year due to the drought induced by the El Niño phenomenon”.
The Panama Canal’s engineering is quite unique, as it is one that connects two oceans, yet does not sit on the sea level. The canal uses a lock system to lift huge cargo ships up to 26 metres above sea level, to the elevation of the canal that sits on the ground. This requires a tremendous amount of water to be pumped into the lock chambers, and the main source of that water is the artificial Gatun Lake.
The lake was created by damming the Chagres river, and its water level is vital to the operating capacity of the canal.
The lakes water levers have lowered due to severe droughts, caused in part by El Nino, a weather phenomenon that occurs once every two to seven years. It has a wide ranging effect on global weather, but in the Pacific ocean, it drives temperatures up.
In Panama, this had led to a delayed start for the rainy season in 2023. As a result, freshwater levels in the reservoirs used by the Panama Canal, like Gatun Lake, have stayed low.
Climate change is a highly relevant factor in all of this, as studies have found that El Nino effects are intensified due to climate change. According to the canal authorities, October, 2023 was the driest October on record for the canal watershed.
Other than limiting the number of ships, the canal authorities have responded to this crisis by capping the draft limit of ships that ply the Panama Canal. It means ships that go through this route cannot carry loads at full capacity.
All of this has led to long waiting times for non-booked vehicles, expensive booking rates, and the authorities auctioning off some booking slots to the highest bidder. As a result, shipping businesses have already started to react to these changes.
Maersk, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, has announced that its cargo vessels headed to and from the Oceania region from eastern North America will be routed using Panamanian ports on the Pacific and the Atlantic, which are connected by rail.
Building another reservoir could be a long term solution to ensuring the survival of the canal.
The Panama Canal Authority has a plan in place to dam the Indio river to create a reservoir to supplement the Gatun Lake. But political support behind this initiative is low, as this will require overturning a law that was passed in 2006 restricting the canal authorities from building another reservoir.
On top of all this, the Panama Canal reservoirs supply over half of the drinking water for Panama’s population, so any new infrastructure remains a sensitive topic.
With Panama struggling to maintain its famous canal, other countries in the region like Mexico and Nicaragua are coming up with their own plans to provide alternatives.
But any solution to this current bottleneck in global trade must consider how climate change will continue affecting trade on the seas in the future.

Taylor Swift
FROM PAGE 14
she will release “The Tortured Poets Department” on April 19.
“I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years,” Swift said as she disclosed the new album, which was made available for pre-sales during the Grammys telecast.
Swift, who is about to jet to Tokyo to resume the world’s highest-grossing concert tour, was among the women who swept the major Grammy awards on Sunday.
Billie Eilish claimed song of the year for “What Was I Made For?,” a ballad written for the “Barbie” movie soundtrack.
“As a woman, it feels a lot of the time like you’re not being seen,” Eilish told reporters backstage. “I feel that this makes me feel very seen. Sometimes it feels really good to have somebody tell you ‘good job.’”
Miley Cyrus, winner of her first two Grammys on Sunday, landed the record of the year honour for her empowerment anthem “Flowers.”
“This award is amazing,” Cyrus said, “but I really hope that it doesn’t change anything because my life was beautiful yesterday.”
Best new artist went to R&B and pop singer Victoria Monet, who thanked her mom, “a single mom raising this really bad girl.”
Winners were chosen by the musicians, producers, engineers and others who make up the Recording Academy. The group has worked to diversify its membership in recent years by inviting more women and people of colour to its ranks.