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Around 300 people protested in Panama City on Monday against plans to build a new reservoir for the Panama Canal, a project that would force several communities to relocate.
The Panama Canal Authority plans to construct the reservoir on the Indio River, west of the canal route, to secure water supplies and protect canal operations from future droughts. The canal currently relies on water stored in artificial lakes.
The project is expected to affect about 2,000 people, with the first relocations scheduled to begin next year.
Protest leader Maricel Sanchez said affected communities would resist the relocations, declaring that residents would not leave their homes willingly.
“They won’t get us out, whether we’re alive or dead,” protest leader Sanchez said during the demonstration in front of the Supreme Court, where she read a statement from the affected communities.
The first community will be relocated is El Limon de Chagres, where preliminary construction work is expected to begin. Several community cemeteries will also have to be closed and relocated.
Tristan Santander, a lawyer representing the affected communities, said a legal motion had been filed seeking to overturn the government order authorising the exhumation and transfer of remains.
