The Government of Panama declared a state of emergency due to the heavy rains and drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon, which has already forced a reduction in traffic through the interoceanic canal that crosses the country.
The decision to declare the state of emergency “stems from the need to be prepared for what may happen” due to El Niño, said Interior Minister Dinoska Montalvo on Tuesday at a press conference.
The measure aims to streamline administrative procedures to deal with the consequences of El Niño, which scientists say could be the most significant ever recorded.
El Niño is a global climate phenomenon that arises from variations in winds and sea-surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean.
With this natural phenomenon, which recurs every two to seven years, the surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific warm, which for months causes substantial changes in wind patterns, pressure, and precipitation on a global scale.
According to official data, floods in Panama have already affected at least 15,643 people this year, mainly in the north and west of the country.
On the other end, eleven river basins are already considered to be in a “water stress” situation, and several regions are expected to suffer drought from October to March 2027, according to forecasts from the Panama Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology.
Due to water shortages, the Panama Canal will reduce traffic from 36 to 34 transits per day starting September 3 and later to 32, announced the Panama Canal Authority last week.
Approximately 5% of global maritime trade passes through this 80-kilometer waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Further north, also on Tuesday, El Salvador imposed the maximum alert level due to drought associated with the El Niño phenomenon, which caused crop losses, announced by the Civil Protection of the Central American country.
El Salvador is partly located in the Central American “dry corridor”, an arid belt particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events.
The same applies to a portion of Honduras, whose southern and western regions suffered losses in maize and bean crops. The Honduran government has placed almost 80% of the country on alert.
The United Nations World Food Programme recently estimated that Central America will likely be “the region most affected in terms of the relative increase in food insecurity” due to El Niño.
El Niño comes on top of a warming trend in the oceans, due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The surface water temperature of the world’s oceans reached an average of 21.1°C on Saturday, an absolute record for a day, due to global warming and El Niño, announced the European Copernicus Observatory.
