The Panama Canal will reduce shipping volumes from next month because of a drought fueled by the El Ni\u00f1o phenomenon, the operator of the strategic waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans said.<\/p>\n
From 3 September, the number of vessels allowed through the canal each day will be reduced due to a lack of rain, the Panama Canal Authority said.<\/p>\n
From 36 ships currently, the number will be lowered to 34, falling further to 32 from 15 September, the agency said.<\/p>\n
Central America is in the throes of a severe drought driven by El Ni\u00f1o , a weather pattern that warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, triggering worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure and rainfall.<\/p>\n
The Panama Canal handles 5% of global maritime trade and around 40% of US container traffic.<\/p>\n
It is fed by rainwater that collects in two artificial lakes.<\/p>\n
The canal operator said that “lower than forecast rainfall in the canal’s watershed” called for measures to bolster the “long-term sustainability” of the waterway.<\/p>\n
It has already implemented other water conservation measures, such as lowering the maximum draft – the vessel’s depth in the water – for the largest ships.<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o occurs on average every two to seven years.<\/p>\n
This year’s El Ni\u00f1o is shaping up as one of the strongest on record.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the government of Honduras placed 80% of that Central American country on drought alert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Panama Canal will reduce shipping volumes from next month because of a drought fueled by the El…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-599953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}