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Dams for the Panama Canal: voices from “the other side”

by Gloria Rudolf

Melania Suárez and José Amado* were still young and strong when they decided to move their family from Loma Bonita, a community in the Pacific highlands of Coclé Province, to Coclesito, on ‘the other side’ of the Continental Divide. They gathered together their belongings, some chickens, and their nine children to make the two-day journey by foot over the Divide. Melania carried the baby in a sling on her shoulder; the toddler sat in a motete. Up they climbed to the summit, and then down the amazingly steep and muddy slopes. It was 1978.

They left their overworked fields in Loma Bonita for the promise of a better life in Coclesito. General Omar Torrijos had created the town in an area of abundant forest and sparse populations. His government publicized Coclesito as a place that would offer small farmers the dream of sufficient lands and dependable government services --- schools, health clinics, safe water, electricity, roads.

Recently, my son, Reid, and I journeyed by foot across the Continental Divide to visit José and Melania in Coclesito. I had gotten to know them well during 1972 and 1973 when I had done research in Loma Bonita. Now, in June of 2005, Reid and I wanted to know how they had fared. We were particularly interested in learning their opinions about the proposed government project to build dams in the area as part of an effort to widen the Panama Canal. If carried out, Coclesito would end up under water.

We found Melania and José in their four-room block home, built, they noted with pride, block by block over many years. This, however, is not the house they had dreamed of 25 years ago: there is no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and, frequently also no running water outside. Nor had they been able to afford to educate most of their children beyond primary school. Yet they do have land to bring some food to the table as well as a life rich in family and friends: nine children and 17 grandchildren live within walking distance. “If the government builds the dams,” José told me, “we will lose… all our years of hard work. If they [resettle us],…where will it be? Good lands in this region already have been claimed. We’ll be lost, too, if they pay us the value of our lands in Coclesito and send us far away where good lands cost more.” In recent years, he explained, the government has photographed and measured our lands in an effort to get us to pay for property titles. “But now,” said José, “we hear that …if they decide to do the dam project, they can just take the land and force us out.”

This uncertainty and fear about their lands and livelihoods was a dominant theme a few hours later when five of José’s neighbors came to the house to discuss their perspectives on the proposed dam project. Ranging in age from their 30s to their 60s, all but one had migrated to Coclesito in search of a better life. None thought the dam project was a good idea. One man in his forties echoed the others: “Imagine. For five years now we have lived in the dark without knowing what will happen to us. … I’m afraid of ending up wherever they send me without enough … fertile lands to work. I have a growing family… I want to work.” The men agreed that, even if a widened canal were to generate new jobs in the region, their lack of education would mean “they’d only hire us as wachiman”.

The silence of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) on the project has fueled their fears. Noted one man, “When officials do come here to talk with us, every time someone asks a good question they say, ‘we’re still studying that issue’ or ‘we haven’t decided about that yet’.”

José, Melania and their neighbors are not part of the Coordinadora Campesina Contra las Embalses [CCCE], an organization of farmers fighting against the project. One member of this group told us, “…The only way we are able to defend ourselves here is to work the land. There are no jobs. If they say we can’t work the land, but don’t give us salaried jobs, how can we live? For this reason, we say, this is a “project of death”.         

Thirty years ago Panama built another huge dam in Bayano. About 4,000 small farmers --- Kuna, Embera, and colonists from rural western Panama --- were forcibly resettled. Anthropologist Alaka Wali examined the impacts of this dam project in her book, Kilowatts and Crisis (1989). She asked whether the benefits of this project had outweighed its cost --- the loss of livelihoods suffered by 4,000 people. No, she concluded. The principal goals of that dam project-- to have inexpensive energy that would stimulate industry and diversify production in rural Panama --- were not met. In addition, Panama experienced massive environmental changes that contributed to continuing ecological deterioration.

This time the lives and livelihoods of 35,000 to 80,000 small farmers are on the line. The ACP says the canal will become obsolete without the expansion, and the country will suffer. The farmers with whom we spoke are not convinced. Will the lessons of Bayano be heeded this time?

* Names have been changed to protect individuals' identities

Gloria Rudolf is an anthropologist who has been conducting ethnographic studies in Panama since 1972. She teaches as adjunct professor for the Anthropology Department at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.