‘For Panama, it is life or death’: how drought is choking the canal that feeds a nation

Failed rains and a dire El Niño threaten the waterway that sustains the country, with farmers selling cattle to survive The cattle should be ambling, grazing contentedly, through Robert Delgado’s fields.

Instead, the animals slump in the shade, tongues lolling, in futile attempts to avoid the blistering heat. Soon it will matter little whether their appetite returns, for there will be no grass left to graze. In Azuero, an agricultural region in Panama ’s Arco Seco (Dry Arc), the summer is generally relentless and unforgiving. But this year, the crucial rainy season that precedes it – typically from May to…