Panama Canal
The Panama channel needs a huge amount of freshwater to work. However, a new study warns that climate change is threatening this operation.
O Panama Canal – A critical route for global maritime trade – may be at risk due to the reduction of rainfall and increased evaporation resulting from climate change. It is the conclusion of a study on September 17 in Geophysical Research Letters.
This vital commercial artery depends on a freshwater supply, from the Gatún Laketo operate the channel’s floodgates and move ships between the two oceans.
The new study revealed that the conditions of seca that were once rare can become common until the end of the century, due to climate change, with a very large impact on channel operation.
Freshwater, renewed by the rains, is critical to move ships between the Pacific and the Atlantic.
As Live Science explains, as ships cross the Panama Canal, a series of three floods raises them to 26 meters above sea level. The ships cross the Gatún Lake at this point, and then go through another series of three floods to get down to the sea level.
O Channel loses water during the operation of these floods.
Depending on Gatun Lake, artificially built as a reservoir, the water descends from Gatún to the Company chamber when a ship rising, but the water is then unloaded, and much is lost when a chamber lows a ship towards sea level.
The administrator of the authority of the Panama Canal (ACP), Ricaurte VásquezHe said earlier that the channel consumes approximately twice and a half more water in its daily operation than the city of New York.
In the new study, researchers found that under low emissions scenarios, lake levels remain relatively stable. However, under higher emissions trajectories, low water levels will become increasingly common throughout the 21st century.
The authors recognize that the human management of the water reservoir also plays a role in lake levels, but said they could not explicitly include management decisions, citing the lack of public documentation of their history.
ACP is in construction process of a third artificial lake, Near the Indian River, west of Lake Gatún, to expand the reservoir.
It is estimated that the project takes 10 years to complete. But the important thing is that its construction will expand the water reservoir that serves the channel and metropolitan area of Panama City.
