by Mindy Cohn 

Hundreds of ships are waiting to pass through the 50-mile-long Panama Canal are stuck due to excessive drought conditions with no rainwater to replenish the manmade canal  in what is being called "the world's worst traffic jam". 

Shipping authorities are worried about the backlog just as they were back in 2021 when a similar traffic jam built up at the Suez Canal when the mammoth Ever Given ran aground diagonally. 

as reported by Rockland Daily here.

The 2021 traffic jam happened after the Ever Given lost its ability to steer due to high winds and a dust storm and became jammed so tightly that the Suez Canal was blocked for the next six days with her bow wedged in one bank of the canal and stern nearly touching the other.

Experts are predicting that the present-day traffic jam might last for weeks due to the worst drought the area has experienced in a century.

The Panama Canal requires 50 million gallons of water daily and rainwater to replenish it. Without adequate rain, traffic is reduced, and fees go up. Presently the daily average of 36 ships is down to 32 per day. 

Even with the extra fee to pass through the canal, canal administrator Ricaurte Vasquez Morales stated during a press conference that the traffic restrictions are going to cost the canal an estimated $200 million in lost revenue.

The wait to enter the canal on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides is about 20 days, with the cost of goods shipped via the canal or longer, alternate means going up due to the delays and extra fees.