▲ Panama Canal
Central and South America are drying up due to a record-breaking El Niño phenomenon combined with global warming.
The Panama Canal, a major regional waterway and global logistics hub, has decided to reduce the number of transiting vessels due to dropping water levels.
Damage is spreading across the board, with Honduras issuing drought alerts for most of its national territory and South America's Peru declaring a state of emergency.
The Panama Canal Authority announced on the 20th, local time, that it will restrict the daily number of vessel transits starting early next month in preparation for the El Niño period.
According to the new measures, the canal authority will limit the daily number of transiting vessels to 34 starting September 4, and further reduce it to 32 starting on the 15th of the same month.
The maximum daily handling capacity of the Panama Canal is 40 vessels.
Consequently, it is observed that waiting times and freight rate pressures across global maritime supply chains will intensify.
According to local media such as La Prensa and El Heraldo as well as foreign media, the Honduran government the previous day issued drought alerts for 234 areas, accounting for about 80 percent of the 298 municipalities nationwide, including the capital Tegucigalpa.
In particular, a red alert, the highest level, was declared for 75 regions where damage is severe.
Honduran President Nasry Asfura announced emergency measures the previous day, including the construction of reservoirs and food aid, stating, This crisis could continue until April of next year.
The food crisis on the ground triggered by the drought has reached a critical threshold.
At the home of Maria Concepcion Aguilera in Goascoran, Valle Department, Honduras, the kitchen hearth fire has been out for a long time, and the grain storehouse is empty.
In an interview with local media, she said, We have nothing left now, and we are barely getting through the day with a few pieces of cookies.
Yoro Department, a major breadbasket, has also seen corn and bean harvests reduced to near-total devastation due to a prolonged drought.
The El Niño phenomenon, in which sea surface temperatures rise near the equator and affect global weather, is causing severe droughts across Central and South America as it combines with recent global warming.
According to the United Nations, this El Niño is evaluated as one of the strongest on record.
The area hit hardest is the Central American Dry Corridor, a climate-vulnerable zone spanning Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern, stating, El Niño is pouring fuel on a burning planet.
The damage is also spreading to the South American continent.
The Peruvian government recently declared a state of emergency in one-third of all cities due to concerns over droughts and heavy rainfall.
Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, who took office last month, presented responding to El Niño as a top national policy task.
Under these circumstances, the U.S. government decided to dispatch the U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort to the Pacific coast of Peru in February 2027 to help Peru cope with the aftermath of El Niño.
U.S. Ambassador to Peru Bernie Navarro stated, We will rapidly provide medical and humanitarian assistance timed to the period when El Niño damage reaches its peak.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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