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EuroWire – May 2012
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The Panama Canal expansion
Nearing completion, a project with
potential to boost trade between Asia and
the United States is raising belated concerns
In October 2006 the citizens of Panama, in a national
referendum, approved by 76.8% of the vote a plan to expand
the Panama Canal to allow for more transits and bigger ships. In
September 2007 the Panama Canal Authority began to execute
the project, expected to take eight years and cost $5.25 billion.
The expansion – which Panamanian o cials have said will
make Panama the strongest economy in Central America – is
on schedule for completion by 2014, the 100-year anniversary
of the canal. Its aim is to double the capacity of the structure by
adding a third lane connecting the Atlantic, via the Caribbean
Sea, to the Paci c. Post-Panamax (super-size) container
ships 1,200 feet in length will carry three times the cargo of
965-ft Panamax ships and have readier access to ports on the
East Coast of the United States.
The American Society of Civil Engineers considers the Panama
Canal to be one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
While its expansion is of tremendous importance to the Republic
of Panama and its people, it is even more signi cant to the
international maritime industry, which stands to bene t directly
through lower shipping costs. Global consumers will eventually
bene t from the greater capacity and e ciency of the canal.
The US – for which the canal keeps the cost of imported goods
down, helping to dampen in ation – will de nitely gain from the
expansion. Five ports carry 70% of US ship imports: Los Angeles/
Long Beach (California); New York/New Jersey; Seattle/Tacoma
(Washington); Savannah (Georgia); and Oakland (California).
All of these, together with the port of Charleston, South Carolina,
either already can receive post-Panamax ships, or will be able to
by 2014. The expansion also has the potential to increase trade
between Asia and the United States. Post-Panamax ships are
currently able to unload only at West Coast ports, their cargo
shipped by rail to markets in the eastern US. After the expansion
these ships will be able to unload on the East Coast, lowering the
cost of Asian goods in the American market.
The expansion programme
The Panama Canal Authority is constructing two new sets of
locks – one each on the Paci c and Atlantic sides of the canal.
Each lock will have three chambers; each chamber will have
three “water reutilisation” basins.
The programme also entails the widening and deepening of
existing navigational channels in Gatun Lake.
It is at this point that concerns about the negative environ-
mental impact of the expansion arise which, because of the
size and scope of the project, could have considerable impact.
Writing in the
Christian Science Monitor
(27
th
March), Panama
correspondent David Francis reported that the primary worry
is the possible contamination of Gatun Lake, Panama’s primary
supply of fresh water, with salt water. Mr Francis explained:
In passages through the canal, salt and fresh water become
mixed as the ships are raised or lowered through the series of
locks. For the expansion to succeed, more water will be used in
the lock system, with much of this water to come from Gatun
Lake. “Fresh and salt water will be required to run through
the channel, and this has a direct impact on Gatun Lake,”
the
Monitor
was told by Charlie Andrews, a partner at the
New York-based global intelligence and advisory rm Ergo.
“There are concerns about the ability to control the amount of
seawater that ows through the lake.”
The largest of the post-Panamax mega-vessels have the
ability to carry up to 13,000 cargo containers. When the ships
come up, water has to be pumped in from the sea. “How do
you get enough water to raise these massive ships?” queried
Mr Andrews. “Both sides of the environmental fence are trying to
determine how much impact this expansion will have.”
The Panama Canal Authority would appear to have made up
its mind in the matter. According to its statement on water
safety, “The water quality of Gatun Lake is typical of tropical
freshwater lakes, and will maintain its freshwater condition
with the existing three-level locks system. According to
the studies and simulations performed [for the expansion
feasibility study], the addition of the new set of locks will not
a ect the water quality of the lake.”
Perhaps. But the potential for environmental problems was
cited as well by Eric Jones, editor of the English-language
Panama News
. This source also suggested that the public
may not have been made aware of all the potential
long-term impacts of the expansion project, and that its
economic bene t might have been overstated.
“We didn’t really have any kind of discussion and so much
of the discussion we did have was patently fraudulent,”
Mr Jones said, in reference to the debate that preceded the
start of the project. “There are major concerns, but we’re not
going to know how it works out until it’s done.”
Appropriately, the
Monitor
article by Mr Francis was titled
“Panama Canal Expansion to Ease International Trade, With a
Grain of Salt.”
Transatlantic Cable
Image: www.bigstockphoto.com Photographer Zsolt Ercsel