{"id":60073333,"date":"2025-03-18T20:30:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T20:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60073333"},"modified":"2025-03-24T14:26:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T14:26:59","slug":"as-panama-canal-dam-project-looms-communities-face-up-to-floods","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/as-panama-canal-dam-project-looms-communities-face-up-to-floods\/","title":{"rendered":"As Panama Canal dam project looms, communities face up to floods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two hours to the west of Panama City, 12,000 residents are fearing relocation, with their lands in line to be flooded by an artificial lake, proposed by the national government to ensure water supply to the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTell the president to leave us alone. Does he know everything we are going to lose: the land, the crops, the homes? We are worried,\u201d says Elizabeth Delgado, a resident of Lim\u00f3n de Chagres, a community on the banks of the Indio River that is the focus of the planned damming project. Along the river, the Delgados and roughly 500 other families face the prospect of seeing their homes submerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proposals for the reservoir project have arisen as the scale of trade transiting through the Panama Canal has gradually increased<\/a> in recent decades, but also in response to prolonged droughts that have hampered operations on the waterway, bringing disruption to a route through which 3% of global maritime trade passes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first months of 2024, as one of the country\u2019s driest years on record drove water levels in the canal system to historic lows<\/a>, the interoceanic route operated at 63% of its normal capacity, explained Jorge Luis Quijano, the former administrator of the Panama Canal Authority. For the first time in its history, in 2023, the year the country\u2019s irregular drought began, conditions forced the authority to limit the daily passage of ships, from the maximum capacity of 37 to 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Trunks of submerged trees appear above Lake Alajuela, an artificial body formed in 1935 to support the Panama Canal. During 2023 and 2024, irregular droughts have forced canal authorities to limit the daily passage of ships through the canal system (Image: Pich Urdaneta)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Miraflores Locks near Panama City. Each vessel\u2019s crossing through the canal\u2019s system of locks requires 52 million gallons of water. To increase the canal\u2019s water capacity, a new reservoir on the Indio River is set to be built (Image: Pich Urdaneta)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Panama Canal system is made up of a series of waterways and locks connecting the country\u2019s Caribbean and Pacific coasts via the artificial Lake Gat\u00fan, created by the damming of the Chagres River, and Lake Alajuela, also an artificial body. Both lakes also supply<\/a> water to just over half of the Panamanian population, including the cities of Panama, Arraij\u00e1n, La Chorrera and Col\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driven largely by the El Ni\u00f1o weather phenomenon, the drought of 2023-24 led to such low levels in these lakes that it presented a challenge to supply water to citizens without restricting the transit of ships, whose passage requires 52 million gallons<\/a> of water per vessel to navigate its system of locks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transit through the Panama Canal has also increased exponentially in the decades since Lake Alajuela was created in 1935, when 6,369 ships passed through, to 14,274<\/a> in 2022 \u2013 the year before the water crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to hitting Panama\u2019s income<\/a>, the drought and restrictions forced shipping companies to look for alternative routes, including the Suez Canal, which increased costs, delays and carbon emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with the uncertain projections<\/a> over future droughts and rainfall, Ricaurte V\u00e1squez, the current administrator of the waterway, explained that the proposed project to increase the canal\u2019s water capacity involves the creation of a reservoir on the Indio River,<\/strong> which would cover an area of approximately 4,600 hectares<\/a>. Construction of the planned dam \u2013 which has yet to receive approval from affected communities \u2013 is slated to begin<\/a> in 2027 and would take four years, followed by two years to fill the reservoir, at an estimated cost<\/a> of USD 1.5 billion, with an additional USD 400 million reportedly being allocated to compensation and social projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Data Source: Panama Canal Authority \/ Map: Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe estimate that there are around 2,000 citizens who could be directly affected by this project, although the entire Indio River area has approximately 12,000 people,\u201d V\u00e1squez recently told a press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A community fears for future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Along the road leading to the community of Lim\u00f3n de Chagres in the province of Col\u00f3n, two hours\u2019 drive from the Panamanian capital, there are numerous signs, hand-painted on fabrics, that reflect the local sentiment: \u201cR\u00edos sin presas, pueblos vivos<\/em>\u201d (Rivers without dams, living towns), \u201cRespeten nuestra tierra<\/em>\u201d (Respect our land), and, perhaps most directly, \u201cNo a los reservorios de r\u00edo Indio<\/em>\u201d (No to reservoirs on the Indio River).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) is currently in the phase of censusing<\/a> the affected areas and attempting to consult with the residents of the communities that stand to be impacted by the planned project, and recently approved funding<\/a> to cover their compensation, resettlement and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only this year will the first actions be taken: with many residents lacking official titles for their properties, the government is looking to assist in formalising these documents that would enable payment for the lands of those affected and their relocation. At this first stage of dialogue with communities, no estimated date for the bidding process for construction contracts has yet been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the road to the community of Lim\u00f3n de Chagres, in the province of Col\u00f3n, many signs expressing opposition to the planned reservoir can be seen, such as this one asking to\u00a0\u201cRespect our land\u201d (Image: Pich Urdaneta \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Upon completion of the proposed dam, the surface of the Indio River would expand to form a reservoir covering areas across the three different provinces that sit along the river\u2019s current 98-kilometer course. The project also proposes a tunnel to transfer water to the Panama Canal basin, where lakes Gat\u00fan and Alajuela are located, to supply water to Panamanians and for the operation of the canal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ACP has insisted<\/a> that the construction of the reservoir will guarantee both the supply of water for the population and the operation of the canal for a period of 50 years<\/a>, and that this process will be carried out in dialogue with those affected, offering guarantees of better living conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite such promises, the tension and anger of residents of the areas in line to be flooded is palpable. On some stretches of the journey during our reporting trip, we needed to travel by canoe, then walk for a further 30 minutes on dirt paths, mud often reaching our knees \u2013 the only way to reach some communities, such as Pueblo Nuevo. As we advanced, our attention was at one point drawn to voices coming from a house located on the top of a hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The road to the community of Pueblo Nuevo does not provide easy access. Many communities in the Indio River Basin are in such isolated locations and lack infrastructure (Image: Pich Urdaneta \/ Dialogue Earth)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo look for something else to do!\u201d and \u201cWe don\u2019t want you coming through here\u201d were the shouts of the indignant residents, while a young Indigenous man, mounted on a horse, came out to meet us on a track leading down from the houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one side, pasted on a weathered wooden gate, was a handwritten note that read: \u201cNo entry to the ACP \u2013 private property \u2013 we will not grant the social license.\u201d The sign draws our attention to another, with a drawing resembling a gun, beside the word \u201cdanger\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We introduced ourselves as reporters from Dialogue Earth and explained that we were looking for information, to which the rider responded that \u201cjournalists have sold out\u201d and that they do not want \u201cdialogue\u201d. After clarifying that we were reporting for an international media outlet, he finally agreed to talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ACP administrator, Ricaurte V\u00e1squez, said that 90% of the community is in favour of the flooding, which is false,\u201d claims the Indigenous rider, whose name turned out to be Abdiel S\u00e1nchez, a 28-year-old resident of Pueblo Nuevo. Once these initial differences were overcome, the community invited our team to join a group celebrating the birthday of a six-year-old girl, a celebration that they had delayed in order to go flyposting in the local area, affixing posters and materials demonstrating their opposition to the reservoir \u2013 the celebration\u2019s postponement perhaps some indication of the strength of this rejection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n