The Panama Canal will begin restricting the number of vessels that transit through the waterway starting this Friday, for the second time in its history, due to the drought caused by the climate phenomenon El Niño. The measure provides for reducing daily ship traffic from 36 to 32 per day, as an effort to conserve water amid a severe drought that will likely last until mid-2027.
The canal authorities are also reducing the permitted draft for vessels, that is, the depth at which ships are submerged, from 15.24 to 14.63 meters. About 5% of global trade passes through the canal that connects the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, making the route one of the most important in the world for maritime transport.
Panama declared a state of emergency due to El Niño, a phenomenon that raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, causing changes in rainfall patterns in the region. The situation had already generated a previous crisis, when a ship paid a record value of 5.3 million dollars to "cut the line" in the Panama Canal.
