Villagers are wary of plans to dam a river to ensure Panama Canal's water supply
The Panama Canal Authority is reaching out to communities that could be impacted if the Indio River is dammed to make a new reservoir ensuring the water supply needed to operate the Panama Canal
EL JOBO, Panama — A long, wooden boat puttered down the Indio River’s chocolate waters carrying Ana María Antonio and a colleague from the Panama Canal Authority on a mission to hear directly from villagers who could be affected by plans to dam the river.
The canal forms the backbone of Panama’s economy, and the proposed dam would secure the water needed to ensure the canal’s uninterrupted operation at a time of increasingly erratic weather.
It also would flood villages, where about 2,000 people would need to be relocated and where there is opposition to the plan, and curb the flow of the river to other communities downstream.
Those living downstream know the mega-project will substantially alter the river, but they hope it will bring jobs, potable water, electricity and roads to their remote communities and not just leave them impoverished.
«We, as the Panama Canal, understand that many of these areas have been abandoned in terms of basic services,” Antonio said.
The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and generates about a quarter of the government's budget.
Last year, the canal authority reduced the number of ships that could cross daily by about 20% because rains hadn’t replenished the reservoirs used to operate the locks, which need about 50 million gallons of fresh water for each ship. It led to shipping delays, and in some cases companies looking for alternatives. By the time restrictions were lifted this month, demand had fallen.
To avoid a repeat due to drought exacerbated by climate change, the plan to dam the Indio
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