Disruption and drought in the Panama Canal
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The important shipping route runs for 82 km through Central America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
But a long period of dry weather means the water in the canal is very low, reducing the number of boats that can travel though.
We travel to Panama to look at the impact this is having on shipping companies, manufacturers and consumers, and find out what the Panama Shipping Company is trying to do about it.
Presenter: Michelle Fleury Producer: Nathalie Jimenez
(Image: A ship going through the Panama Canal locks. Credit: Panama Canal Authority)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Namulanta Combo here with some very exciting news. |
| 0:04.4 | Dear Daughter is back for a new series. |
| 0:07.1 | I'm putting together a handbook to life for Daughters everywhere, full of stories and advice to help navigate life. |
| 0:13.2 | That's Dear Daughter from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:16.6 | Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:20.9 | Welcome to Business Daily on the BBC. |
| 0:24.0 | I'm Michelle Flurry. |
| 0:25.6 | If you're a fan of Chilean wine, there's a chance that the bottle you're drinking came |
| 0:29.5 | via a container ship through the Panama Canal. |
| 0:35.8 | But there's a problem with the Panama Canal, which runs through Central America between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. |
| 0:42.7 | We don't have enough water stored in the lakes to be able to sustain a standard normal operation. |
| 0:48.5 | And that means fewer ships can pass through. |
| 0:51.4 | They have to pay higher rates or maybe not even get a chance to |
| 0:56.2 | ferry cross. Due to changing weather patterns, the problem is only going to get worse. So what |
| 1:02.0 | does the future hold for the Panama Canal and for how we move goods around the world? And what can |
| 1:07.9 | the canal do to save itself? That's all coming up on today's Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:18.9 | This is our boat. |
| 1:21.0 | The name is Gigantito River. |
| 1:32.1 | We're headed to see one of the hydrology stations on Lake Gatoon. |
| 1:36.6 | Lake Gatun is the huge reservoir in the middle of the Panama Canal. |
| 1:42.6 | After a chopy 30-minute boat ride past lush vegetation, we pull up at a small dock and disembark. |
| 1:43.7 | Our guide is Nelson Gera. |
... |
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