Panama has been looking for solutions to a long-term problem. Every time a ship passes through the Panama Canal, more than 50 million gallons of fresh water from Lake Gatun pour out into the ocean. Nobody ever thought Panama could run out of water. It is one of the rainiest countries in the world. But a couple years ago, a drought got so bad that the canal had to reduce traffic by more than a third - which had a huge impact on global shipping.The Panama Canal needs more water. Authorities have decided to get it by building a dam in a spot that would displace more than 2,000 people along the Rio Indio.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.orgEmail us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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We're standing at the edge of this beautiful river. I can see little fish swimming just under the surface. There's a small hand-carved wooden canoe floating under a tree. What does this body of water mean to you?
Ay, es mi vida entera. El río es la vida mía entera.
This river is my whole life, says 60-year-old Digna Benite. She smiles wistfully under her straw hat. She grew up here on the Rio Indio in a small village in Panama called Limón de Chagres. She would play in the water while her father caught fish. The water is so clean and calm, she says, it rises and falls. For me, it's harmony. A long, narrow boat pulls up.
Digna Benite and a younger man named Oligario Cedeno help us climb in, and we pull away from the shore. The boat pulls over to the edge of the Rio Indio and we climb up some steep stairs that are basically carved into the mud bank. Oligario, what are you showing us? Here I'm showing you where the dam would be, he says. The Rio Indio Dam.
It doesn't exist yet, but authorities intend to start building it in just a couple years. Panama has been looking for solutions to a long-term problem. Every time a ship passes through the Panama Canal, more than 50 million gallons of fresh water from Lake Gatun pour out into the ocean. Nobody ever thought Panama could run out of water. It is one of the rainiest countries in the world.
But a couple years ago, a drought got so bad that the canal had to reduce traffic by more than a third, which had a huge impact on global shipping. Consider this. The Panama Canal needs more water, and authorities have decided to get it by building a dam in a spot that would displace Digna, Olegario, and more than 2,000 other people. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro.
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It's Consider This from NPR. In a wide grassy field in rural Panama, Digna Benite looks out at the spot where the Panama Canal Authority plans to build a new dam. We stand in the shade of a wild coffee tree, the fragrance like honeysuckle, wafting off branches full of white blossoms. Senora Digna, when you see this place and you think about what might happen here, what goes through your head?
I feel as if they would kill us because we wouldn't be surrounded by nature anymore. For example, this coffee plant that we're standing by, I grab the bean, I take it, I toast it, and then that's the coffee that I have in the mornings.
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