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Panama Canal: Planned reservoir threatens indigenous communities [1]
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Date: 2025-05
“We estimate that there are around 2,000 citizens who could be directly affected by this project, although the entire Indio River area has approximately 12,000 people,” the ACP’s administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez, recently told a press conference.
Some 12,000 people live in the Indio Basin, most of whom rely on the land to survive. All will be affected by the construction of a dam, regardless of whether their homes are the ones flooded, although most will seemingly not be eligible for compensation.
A community fears for future
Two hours’ drive from the Panamanian capital, the road to the Limón de Chagres community in the province of Colón is littered with hand-painted signs that reflect the local sentiment.
“Ríos sin presas, pueblos vivos” (Rivers without dams, living towns), “Respeten nuestra tierra” (Respect our land), and, perhaps most directly, “No a los reservorios de río Indio” (No to reservoirs on the Indio River).
The ACP has been surveying the affected areas and attempting to consult with the residents of the communities that stand to be impacted by the project, after a 2006 law blocking the creation of a new reservoir was last year overturned by the Supreme Court. The ruling gave the ACP control over water resources beyond the canal’s watershed boundaries – which had previously been restricted – opening up the possibility of the construction of the Indio River reservoir.
This year, the first actions will be taken. Many residents lack official titles for their properties, and the government is looking to assist in formalising these documents to enable payment for the lands of those affected and their relocation. At this first stage of dialogue with communities, no estimated date for the bidding process for construction contracts to build the dam has yet been released.
Upon completion of the dam, the surface of the Indio River would expand to form a reservoir covering areas across three different provinces along the river’s current 98-kilometre course. The project also includes a pipe to transfer water to the Panama Canal basin, where Gatún and Alajuela lakes are located.
The ACP has insisted that the process will be carried out in dialogue with those affected, offering guarantees of better living conditions. It says the reservoir will guarantee both the supply of water for the population and the operation of the canal for 50 years – a claim disputed by the plan’s critics.
Despite such promises, there is visible tension and anger in the areas in line to be flooded. To reach some communities during our reporting trip, we needed to travel by canoe, then walk along dirt paths, mud often reaching our knees. On one such occasion, when visiting Pueblo Nuevo, another community threatened by the dam and eviction, we heard voices coming from a house on top of a hill.
“Go look for something else to do!” and “We don’t want you coming through here,” local people shouted, as a young Indigenous man on a horse came out to meet us on a track leading down from the houses.
On one side, pasted on a weathered wooden gate, was a handwritten note that read: “No entry to the ACP – private property – we will not grant the social license.” The sign drew our attention to another, with a drawing resembling a gun next to the word “danger”.
We introduced ourselves to the horse rider as reporters from Dialogue Earth and explained that we were looking for information, to which he responded that “journalists have sold out” and that they didn't want “dialogue”. Only after we explained we were reporting for an international media outlet, he finally agreed to talk.
“The ACP administrator, Ricaurte Vásquez, said that 90% of the community is in favour of the flooding, which is false,” said the Indigenous rider, Abdiel Sánchez, a 28-year-old resident of Pueblo Nuevo.
Once these initial differences were overcome, the community invited our team to join a group celebrating the birthday of a six-year-old girl. That they had delayed the party in order to go flyposting in the local area – putting up posters and materials demonstrating their opposition to the reservoir – perhaps offers some indication of the strength of this rejection.
Among those present was Artemio Sánchez, a 52-year-old farmer and president of the local social development board, who said that they do not get any “help from the government, much less from the canal [authority], not even ten cents to buy a box of matches.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/panama-canal-new-resevoir-flood-indio-indigenous-communities-donald-trump-us/
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