2024-08-19 08:12:02
The Panama Canal celebrates 110 years of operation on Thursday and there are many curiosities and anecdotes related to the colossal interoceanic route, built by the United States after the French disaster. Here are five notable facts:
– The channel gave birth to a country –
Panama’s independence from Colombia in 1903 is linked to the interoceanic canal.
Following the failure of the French Count Ferdinand de Lesseps to open a canal in the isthmus, the United States promoted the separation of the province of Panama and signed a treaty with the nascent country that ceded land and water in perpetuity to build it.
After 10 years of construction and an investment of 380 million dollars at the time, the canal was inaugurated on August 15, 1914 with the crossing of the steamer Ancón.
There are 25,000 deaths from disease and accidents during French and American construction.
During the French period, in 1887, the later famous painter Paul Gauguin almost lost his life working on construction sites.
– A State within a State –
Washington established the “Canal Zone,” an enclave where the American flag flew, with its own military bases, police and justice system.
This gave rise to decades of demands by Panamanians to reunify the country and take control of the waterway.
“The canal has represented many things over these 110 years. In its original construction: ingenuity, perseverance and sacrifice; then a great struggle to recover a single national territory and a single flag,” the deputy administrator of the canal, Ilya Espino, told AFP.
In 1977, Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos and US President Jimmy Carter signed treaties that allowed the canal to be handed over to Panama in 1999.
– Shortcut with elevators –
The 80-km long waterway that connects the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea is operated by locks, a kind of elevator that raises ships 26 metres to reach the level of Gatun Lake and cross it.
Another set of locks lowers them to sea level to continue their route.
The canal transformed global shipping and trade. Ships can cross from one ocean to the other in about 8 hours without having to go all the way around Cape Horn. From New York to San Francisco, a ship can save 20,300 km.
In 110 years, it has only been closed in 1915 due to a landslide and in 1989 when Panama was invaded by the United States. In 2010, it was closed for 17 hours due to flooding.
“We overcame the Covid pandemic without closing down world trade for a single day,” Espino said.
– Golden egg hen –
Six percent of global maritime trade passes through the canal. It also connects more than 1,900 ports in 170 countries. Its largest users are the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.
By the beginning of the 21st century, it had already become too small and was expanded between 2009 and 2016. Today, Neopanamax vessels can pass through, with dimensions of 49 metres wide by 366 metres long, equivalent to almost four football fields.
The expansion “has made it possible to accommodate ships with up to 18,000 containers,” former port administrator Jorge Quijano told AFP.
The canal contributes 6% of Panama’s GDP and has provided the treasury with more than $25.7 billion since 2000.
In fiscal year 2023, when more than 14,000 ships carrying 511 million tons of cargo crossed it, it brought in a record $2.544 billion, far more than in 85 years of U.S. administration ($1.878 billion).
But Panama’s goose that lays the golden eggs now faces the threat of drought.
– The freshwater canal –
Unlike the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal operates with fresh water. “It uses two and a half times the amount of water that a city the size of New York uses,” said the canal’s administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez.
For every ship, approximately 200 million litres of fresh water are dumped into the sea.
In 2023, alarm bells rang when the drought forced the reduction of daily vessel traffic from 38 to 22. This year, the number of vessels is recovering.
“Many countries have oil or gas, we have water and nature is playing a trick on us that we did not expect,” Jorge Pitti, operations manager at the Cocolí lock on the Pacific side of the route, told AFP.
Authorities are considering building a reservoir on a nearby river to supply water to the canal, but more than 2,000 people would have to be relocated.
“The canal has to regain its service reliability. That can only be achieved by securing new sources of water,” warned Quijano.
© Agence France-Presse
