President Mulino Meets with Panama Canal Board of Directors
Panama's presidential candidate for the Realizando Metas party Jose Raul Mulino gestures during his campaign closing rally in Panama City on April 28, 2024. Panama will hold presidential elections next May 5. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP)
The President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, held a meeting this Wednesday with the Board of Directors of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), in order to learn in greater detail about the entity’s plans to ensure the sustainability and profitability of canal operations.
During the discussion, held in the Paz Room of the Palacio de las Garzas, alternatives were analyzed for a recomposition of the hydrographic basin of the interoceanic Canal, with the aim of establishing a freshwater reservoir in the Indio River. According to the ACP, this project will guarantee the services provided by the Canal to the maritime industry and, at the same time, will improve the supply of drinking water for citizens.
President Mulino stressed that the issue of the Rio Indio reservoir will be duly presented to the country next year, once a new Social Security law is approved and a solution is found to the problem of the Donoso mine. “I hope that the Canal issue will pass in calm waters, without hostility,” said the president.
The meeting was attended by the administrator of the Canal, Ricaurte Vásquez, and the members of the Board of Directors of the ACP: Nelson Jackson, Laury Melo de Alfaro, Enrique Sánchez, Francisco Sierra, Oscar Ramírez, Jorge González, Dora Pérez Balladares, Nicolás González Revilla and Luis Navas. The president was accompanied by the ministers of the Presidency, Juan Carlos Orillac; Canal Affairs, José Ramón Icaza; and Environment, Juan Carlos Navarro; as well as presidential advisor Alberto Alemán Zubieta and Roberto Roy, presidential consultant on engineering and construction.
