According to researcher Pablo Navarro, a lately exploratory study indicates that the controversial initiative has not thought of the families that could lose everything with this mega project, whose construction would take about six years.
In addition, it has an investment of USD$1.6 billion, according to Ricaurte Vazquez, administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).
Navarro stated that neither the ACP, nor the Government have consulted the population about the project, which was evidenced in a poll to families living on the banks of the Indio River, in Colon; in Tres Hermanas, in West Panama and communities in Cocle del Norte, in Colon.
Among the findings, researchers confirmed that 90% of those interviewed rejected the dams due to the uncertainty of what could happen to these villages.
These communities, inhabited by mostly farmers, have a low level of schooling, grounded in poverty conditions; thus, their main incomes are agriculture and fishing, the scholar told the newspaper La Estrella de Panama.
Navarro highlighted that the poll shows that this population, in spite of its proximity to the inter-oceanic route and the wealth it produces, has been marginalized from its development; and a transfer without guarantees would make these peoples disappear.
The expert further argued that, in case of a relocation, the Government must offer them the same living conditions linked to their culture of working the land, along with training with technology.
Otherwise, the specialist warned, Panamanians will be experiencing the same injustices committed by the United States during the construction of the Canal (1904-1914) when entire villages wiped off without any kind of mercy. Moreover, members of the Polo Ciudadano organization issued a communiqué, to which Prensa Latina had access, in which they point out that neither the ACP nor the national Government can pass over the willingness of the inhabitants of the Indio River Basin.
In that sense, they demanded that the opinion and decision of these inhabitants be respected, since every time megaprojects of this type are undertaken, the peasant families are harmed, losing their lands and their daily way of life, without any benefit whatsoever.
They further provided as an example the inhabitants of Bayano who, 50 years later, still do not receive their compensation and even have problems due to lack of water in their homes.
Polo Ciudadano urged environmentalists, unions and other organized sectors of Panamanian social movements to prepare for these new days of awareness and struggles to come, in defense of the Indio River and other tributaries in the region.
However, on July 12, Vazquez himself stressed that social work and attention to communities is paramount before taking on any project in the watershed, following a recent Supreme Court ruling which repealed the 2006 law and extended the limits of that territorial space to another 120,000 hectares.
This policy is even more necessary now, the authority alluded to the project to build a multipurpose reservoir in the Indio River to supply drinking water to the two-million population, another of his responsibilities, along with the transit operations of vessels.
According to ACP data, this inter-oceanic waterway transits 6.0% of all global maritime trade, with 180 routes connecting 1,920 ports in 170 countries.
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