Drought has forced authorities in Panama to reduce shipping traffic in the canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific as a water supply crisis threatens the future of the crucial waterway. Two artificial lakes that normally maintain the water level in the canal and refill the locks have been depleted by lack of rain.
Six percent of global shipping passes through the canal, mostly from the United States, China and Japan. The alternative is the long and frequently stormy route around the southern tip of South America.
