Rio Indio reservoir: the Panama Canal water supply project
The reservoir approved by the ACP board in February 2025 to add water supply to the Panama Canal system, its budget, timeline and resettlement requirement.
The Rio Indio reservoir is a planned lake in the middle course of the Indio River watershed, approved by the Panama Canal Authority board through Resolution ACP-JD-RM 25-1542 of 21 February 2025 as the Authority’s principal answer to structural water scarcity. The budget is about B/.1.6 billion and the build time about six years, with the tender planned for 2027.
The full article will cover the project’s water supply case, the declaration of public interest that now requires ACP prior approval for land sales, construction, loans and land use changes in the area of influence, the environmental impact assessment process, and the resettlement of farming communities in the area to be flooded. It will also treat the sustained local opposition and the proposed alternative expansion of the Bayano reservoir, which would require no relocation.