Panama Canal will invest USD 1.6bn to prevent future drought

The authority has proposed the Rio Indio Reservoir project to invest USD 1.6bn to dam the nearby Indio River. 

After damming the river, the project will drill an 8 km long mountain tunnel connecting the newly built reservoir to Gatun Lake, which supplies water to the canal.

If the parties agree, the project will take at least five years to complete. However, by then it will also allow 15 more ships per day to pass through the canal.

“The priority of some of the water projects associated with the Panama Canal were taking second place to other critical issues in the past. Now this is very much on the forefront of the new administration,” Ricaurte Vasquez, CEO of the ACP, said at a meeting on Monday. 

Last year, the canal experienced its worst drought since 1950. The water level dropped to its lowest point in January, almost 2.5 meters lower than in the same month in 2023. 

(English edit by Kristoffer Grønbæk)