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- Currently — August 23, 2023: Drought has turned the Panama Canal into a parking lot
Currently — August 23, 2023: Drought has turned the Panama Canal into a parking lot
Wait time to transit the canal has soared to 21 days.
Eric Holthaus
August 23, 2023
The weather, currently.
Drought has forced a major slowdown in ship traffic at the Panama Canal, with more than 200 ships waiting up to three weeks to cross.
In an official statement, the Panama Canal Authority said the current drought situation “has no historical precedence.”
Each crossing of the canal uses 51 million gallons of water from nearby lakes, and those lakes are running low. Panama is facing its lowest rainfall since the canal opened in 1914, worsened by climate change and a strengthening El Niño in the Pacific.
The #Panama Canal has turned into a huge maritime traffic jam, with more than 200 ships stranded on both sides of the waterway due to severe drought
— Farnak (@Farnakyboy)
Aug 20, 2023
It’s not clear how long the situation could last, but some shippers have already been adding surcharges to goods passing through the canal — raising fears that the slowdown could worsen inflation globally.
What you can do, currently.
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