EL JOBO, Panama: A long, wooden boat puttered down the Indio River’s chocolate waters carrying Ana María Antonio and a colleague from the Panama Canal Authority on a mission to hear directly from villagers who could be affected by plans to dam the river.
The canal forms the backbone of Panama’s economy, and the proposed dam would secure the water needed to ensure the canal’s uninterrupted operation at a time of increasingly erratic weather.
It also would flood villages, where about 2,000 people would need to be relocated and where there is opposition to the plan, and curb the flow of the river to other communities downstream.
Those living downstream know the mega-project will substantially alter the river, but they hope it will bring jobs, potable water, electricity and roads to their remote communities and not just leave them impoverished.
“We, as the Panama Canal, understand that many of these areas have been abandoned in terms of basic services,” Antonio said.
The canal
The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and generates about a quarter of the government’s budget.
Last year, the canal authority reduced the number of ships that could cross daily by about 20 percent because rains hadn’t replenished the reservoirs used to operate the locks, which need about 50 million gallons of fresh water for each ship. It led to shipping delays and, in some cases, companies looking for alternatives. By the time restrictions were lifted this month, demand had fallen.
To avoid a repeat due to drought exacerbated by climate change, the plan to dam the Indio River was revived.
It received a boost this summer with a ruling from Panama’s Supreme Court. For years, Panama has wanted to build another reservoir to supplement the main supply of water from Lake Gatun — a large manmade lake and part of the canal’s route — but a 2006 regulation prohibited the canal from expansion outside its traditional watershed. The Supreme Court’s decision allowed a re-interpretation of the boundaries.
The Indio runs roughly parallel to the canal, through the isthmus. The new reservoir on the Indio would sit southwest of Lake Gatun and supplement the water from there and what comes from the much smaller AlHajjuela Lake to the east. The Indio reservoir would allow an estimated 12 to 13 additional canal crossings each day.
The reservoirs also provide water to the more than 2 million people — half the country’s population — living in the capital.
The river
Monkeys screeched in the thick jungle lining the Indio on an August morning. The boat weaved around submerged logs below concrete and rough timber houses high on the banks. Locals passed in other boats, the main means of transportation for the area.
At the town of El Jobo, Antonio and her colleague carefully climbed the muddy incline from the river to a room belonging to the local Catholic parish, decorated with flowers and bunches of green bananas.
Inside, residents from El Jobo and Guayabalito, two communities that won’t be flooded, took their seats. The canal authority has held dozens of such outreach meetings in the watershed.
The canal representatives hung posters with maps and photos showing the Indio’s watershed. They talked about the proposed project, the Supreme Court’s recent decision, a rough timeline.
Antonio said that canal officials are talking to affected residents to figure out their needs, especially if they are from the 37 tiny villages where residents would have to be relocated.
Canal authorities have said the Indio is not the only solution they’re considering, but just days earlier canal administrator Ricaurte Catin Vasquez said it would be the most efficient option, because it has been studied for at least 40 years.
That’s nearly as long as Jeronima Figueroa, 60, has lived along the Indio in El Jobo. Besides being the area’s critical transportation link, the Indio provides water for drinking, washing clothes and watering their crops, she said.
“That river is our highway and our everything,” she said.
The dam’s effect on the river’s flow was top of mind for the assembled residents, along with why the reservoir is needed, what would the water be used for, which communities would have to relocate, how property titles would be handled, would the construction pollute the river.
Puria Nunez of El Jobo summed up the fears: “Our river isn’t going to be the same Indio River.”
Progress
Kenny Alexander Macero, a 21-year-old father who raises livestock in Guayabalito, said it was clear to him that the reservoir would make the canal a lot of money, but he wanted to see it spur real change for his family and others in the area.
“I’m not against the project, it’s going to generate a lot of work for people who need it, but you should be sincere in saying that ‘we’re going to bring projects to the communities that live in that area,’” he said. “We want highways. Don’t try to fool us.”
One complication was that while the canal authorities would be in charge of the reservoir project, the federal government would have to carry out the region’s major development projects. And the feds weren’t in the room.
The project is not a guarantee of other benefits. There are communities along Lake Gatun that don’t have potable water.
Gilberto Toro, a community development consultant not involved in the canal project, said that the canal administration is actually more trusted by people than Panama’s federal government, because it hasn’t been enmeshed in as many scandals.
“Everybody knows that the canal projects come with a seal of guarantee,” Toro said. “So a lot of people want to negotiate with the canal in some way because they know what they’re going to offer isn’t going to be trinkets.”
Figueroa expressed similar faith in the canal administrators, but said that residents would need to monitor them closely to avoid being overlooked. “We can’t keep living far behind like this,” she said. “We don’t have electricity, water, health care and education.”
Next steps
President Jose Raul Mulino has said a decision about the Indio River project would come next year. The canal administration ultimately will decide, but the project would require coordination with the federal government. No public vote is necessary, but the canal administrator has said they are looking to arrive at a public consensus.
Opposition has emerged, not surprisingly, in communities that would be flooded.
Among those is Limon, where the canal representatives parked their car and boarded a boat to El Jobo. It’s where the reservoir’s dam would be constructed. The highway only arrived there two years ago and the community still has many needs.
Olegario Hernandez has had a sign out in front of his home in Limon for the past year that says: “No to the reservoirs.”
The 86-year-old farmer was born there and raised his six children there. His children all left the area in search of opportunities, but Hernandez wants to stay.
“We don’t need to leave,” Hernandez said, but the canal administration “wants to kick us out.”
Villagers are wary of plans to dam a river to ensure Panama Canal’s water supply
https://arab.news/9dann
Villagers are wary of plans to dam a river to ensure Panama Canal’s water supply
- Proposed dam would secure the water needed to ensure the canal’s uninterrupted operation at a time of increasingly erratic weather
- But it also would flood villages, where about 2,000 people would need to be relocated, and curb the flow of the river to other communities downstream
UK government says Chinese spying on the rise
- Prime Minister Keir Starmer commissioned an “audit” of Britain’s relations with Beijing
- The report, published on Tuesday, recommended high-level engagement with China but also building “resilience” against threats
LONDON: Chinese spying and attempts by Beijing to undermine Britain’s democracy and economy have risen in recent years, the UK government said Tuesday in a report on the Asian giant.
Foreign minister David Lammy told parliament the Labour administration would invest £600 million ($818 million) in its intelligence services as a result of the findings.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer commissioned an “audit” of Britain’s relations with Beijing after he swept to power in landslide general election win last July.
The report, published on Tuesday, recommended high-level engagement with China for a “trade and investment relationship” but also building “resilience” against threats posed by Beijing.
“We understand that China is a sophisticated and persistent threat,” but “not engaging with China is therefore no choice at all,” Lammy told MPs.
“Like our closest allies, we will co-operate where we can and we will challenge where we must,” he said, vowing that meant “never compromising on our national security.”
Starmer has vowed to pursue a “consistent” relationship after the previous Conservative government first trumpeted a “golden era” of close diplomatic ties before relations became increasingly strained.
The British PM hopes Chinese investment can help him achieve his main mission of firing up Britain’s economy.
But differences over Russia’s war in Ukraine, Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs and Hong Kong — including the imprisonment of media mogul Jimmy Lai — pose hurdles to repairing relations.
In a joint letter coordinated by Reporters Without Borders, 33 organizations around the globe wrote to Starmer on Tuesday asking him to meet Lai’s son Sebastian.
“As a British citizen facing an unthinkable ordeal, Sebastien Lai deserves to hear first-hand from the Prime Minister what the UK is doing to secure his father’s release,” said the letter, which was signed by groups including Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Foundation.
Espionage allegations have also blighted the relationship in recent years, including claims that a Chinese businessman used his links with Britain’s Prince Andrew to spy for the Communist Party.The report noted that “instances of China’s espionage, interference in our democracy and the undermining of our economic security have increased in recent years.”
“Our national security response will therefore continue to be threat-driven, bolstering our defenses and responding with strong counter-measures,” the government said.
Starmer’s administration is due to rule on whether to approve Beijing’s controversial plans to open the biggest embassy in Britain at a new London location.
Residents, rights groups and China hawks oppose the development, fearing it could be used for the surveillance and harassment of dissidents.
Russian attacks kill 18 civilians in Ukraine as Zelensky seeks more Western help
- Zelensky is keen to lock in additional military support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s bigger army
- A Russian ballistic missile attack on Dnipro hit multiple civilian sites, killing nine people and injuring more than 100
KYIV: Russian drones, missiles and artillery killed at least 18 civilians and injured more than 100 others in Ukraine, officials said Tuesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought guarantees of further Western military aid for his country’s efforts to repel Russia’s invasion.
Russian forces have relentlessly blasted civilian areas of Ukraine throughout the war, which is now in its fourth year. More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, according to the United Nations. Ukraine has also launched long-range drones against Russia, hitting residential areas.
Zelensky was set to meet Tuesday with Western leaders attending a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands. He is keen to lock in additional military support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s bigger army, as recent direct peace talks have delivered no progress on a possible settlement.
Key US military commitments to Ukraine left over from the Biden administration are expected to run out within months, according to analysts, and there is uncertainty over whether US President Donald Trump is willing to provide more.
A Russian ballistic missile attack on Dnipro hit multiple civilian sites in the central Ukrainian city around midday on Tuesday, killing nine people and injuring more than 100, local officials said.
In the nearby town of Samar, an attack killed two people and injured 11, Dnipro’s regional administration head Serhii Lysak wrote on Telegram.
The barrage damaged 19 schools, 10 kindergartens, a vocational school, a music school and a social welfare office, as well as eight medical facilities, according to Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov. One of the blasts blew out the windows of a passenger train.
Russia also shelled residential neighborhoods and critical infrastructure across Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, killing four civilians and wounding at least eleven others, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration.
In the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine, a drone attack late Monday killed three civilians, including a 5-year-old boy, and injured six others, local authorities said.
Among the injured were two 17-year-old girls and a 12-year-old boy, according to officials.
Russian air defense forces overnight shot down 20 Ukrainian drones, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday morning. It said 14 were downed over the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, while two had been flying over the Moscow province.
One drone slammed into a tower block on the outskirts of the Russian capital, sparking a fire on its 17th floor, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said Tuesday. He said a 34-year-old resident suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm and leg. Two other drones were shot down on the approach to Moscow, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
Air traffic was briefly halted as a precaution at two major Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo, a representative of Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said.
Merz says NATO spending boost to counter Russia — not please Trump
- Merz has been racing to build up Germany’s long-neglected armed forces, with the aim of turning them into the ‘strongest conventional army’ in Europe
BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz insisted a pledge by NATO allies to boost defense spending at a “historic” summit starting on Tuesday would not just aim to please US President Donald Trump.
“We are not doing this, as some claim, to do the United States and its president a favor,” he told the German parliament before setting off for the gathering in The Hague.
“We are doing this based on our own observations and convictions. Russia, above all, is actively and aggressively threatening security and freedom” across Europe, he added.
“We have to fear that Russia will continue its war beyond Ukraine.”
The summit has been viewed as heavily focused on keeping Trump happy after he made comments that sparked concern about Washington’s commitment to NATO and insisted that other member states spend at least five percent of their GDP on defense.
NATO’s 32 countries have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate 3.5 percent to core military spending by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader security-related areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.
On Monday, Europe’s biggest economy revealed plans to reach the 3.5 percent level for core spending six years early — in 2029 — with the vast extra outlays necessary made possible after Germany eased its rules on taking on debt.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday that he would head to the NATO summit with the message that “external security and defense capability are once again an absolute priority in (German) government policy.”
“We are bringing about a historic turnaround in defense spending.”
On the summit, he said there were “good signs” about “the broad consensus on how to proceed... I see no reason to assume that we will be given the cold shoulder.”
Since taking office in May, Merz has been racing to build up Germany’s long-neglected armed forces, with the aim of turning them into the “strongest conventional army” in Europe — a radical shift in a country with strong pacifist traditions due to its dark wartime past.
A drive has been launched to boost military personnel, which aims to attract 11,000 fresh recruits this year alone — and Pistorius has suggested conscription, which was halted in Germany in 2011, could be reintroduced if too few people sign up voluntarily.
Germany is also building up a permanent military brigade in Lithuania — the country’s first such overseas deployment since World War II — to bolster NATO’s eastern flank against Russia.
Vietnam aims to sign nuclear power plant deal with Russia in August
- The move follows Vietnam’s restart of plans to develop nuclear power plants
- It is expected to be online between 2030 and 2035
HANOI: Vietnam’s government said on Tuesday it aims to sign an agreement with its Russian counterpart in August to build the Southeast Asian country’s first nuclear power plant.
Site clearance for development of the plant in Ninh Thuan province is to be completed by the end of this year, the government said in a statement.
The move follows Vietnam’s restart of plans to develop nuclear power plants that were suspended nearly a decade ago, as part of its efforts to ramp up its power generation capacity to support its fast-growing economy.
The government has previously said it expected the first nuclear power plants with a combined capacity of up to 6.4 gigawatts to be online between 2030 and 2035.
The government said on Tuesday it has told the finance ministry, central bank, state energy firm Petrovietnam and utility firm EVN to work with related parties on loans for the project.
Indonesian researchers unearth 500,000-year-old elephant fossils in Java
- Researchers say found elephant fossils may be almost complete
- Central Java is also location of archaeological site Sangiran, where ‘Java Man’ was found
Jakarta: Indonesian researchers have discovered fossils of a prehistoric elephant in Central Java, which they estimate are around 500,000 years old.
The fossils were found in Patiayam, an archaeological site and mountainous area situated on the border of the Kudus and Pati regencies in Central Java, where, throughout the years, ancient animal fossils have been found.
In 2024, a collaborative team organized by the Center for Prehistory and Austronesian Studies, the Dharma Bakti Lestari Foundation and the National Research and Innovation Agency, known locally as BRIN, launched a research project at the site to explore fossil possibilities.
Though the initial discovery was made then, researchers postponed the project until this year and expanded the site of excavation, which is still ongoing.
“Based on the geological formation of the site where it was found, we estimate that the fossils are at least 500,000 years old, give or take. We have yet to conduct a direct dating of the fossils, so this is based on a relative dating of the soil layer,” Mohammad Ruly Fauzi, researcher at CPAS and BRIN, told Arab News.
“We have been able to identify that these belong to an elephas type, but not the specific species … What’s clear is that this is a very big elephant, nothing like elephants today …. It’s prehistoric, not early historic period.”
He said the excavation has made about 50 percent progress and that the elements found so far make up the front part of an elephant.
“It’s interesting because this is shaping up to be an almost complete fossil … They are all situated pretty closely.”
Once the excavation is completed, the fossils will be preserved as part of a collection at the Patiayam Archaeological Museum. The discovery might help Patiayam gain recognition as a cultural heritage site, Fauzi added.
“Every site has its own unique qualities, but Patiayam site is particularly interesting and very deserving to gain status as a national cultural heritage site in our opinion … This research can help serve as a foundation for officials to decide,” he said.
Central Java, where Patiayam is located, is also home to the Sangiran Early Man Site, a UNESCO World Heritage site renowned for its significant collection of Homo erectus fossils, dating from 1.1 million to 800,000 years ago, including the “Java Man.”
