"How the Panama Canal is Adapting to the Worst Drought in a Century"

[Turtles06]

"How the Panama Canal is Adapting to the Worst Drought in a Century" 

 

This is a very interesting article published in the Wall St. Journal a couple of days ago.  (Per the WSJ, this link should not be behind the paywall.) 

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-worst-drought-in-a-century-is-changing-the-panama-canal-50e58f13?st=cty0pgmi41rj1ol&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

 

[BillB48]

I have been reading those articles with interest, although the first time I tried to read the WSJ article it was behind a pay wall.  Your link was not behind the pay wall... hooray!  While not trying to minimize or discount the potential for a real problem later on down the road, I believe what is being reported is a lot of Henny Penny and the sky is falling.  Seems like it always the worst and the never has been a situation like this in all of recorded history.  If they would just take a look back to 2016 when the new locks were opened the Canal was going through an extremely dry period and Gatun Lake reached very low water levels, the accompanying Rainy Season was 20% less than normal but wasn't even the "driest" Rainy Season on record.  There had been 4 drier Rainy Seasons previously.

 

This Rainy Season will probably be sub par due to the El Nino setting up in the Pacific.  The affect in Panama is the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) tends to form a little more south of Panama durin the El Nino.  The ITCZ is the rainmaker  for Panama's Rainy Season, it doesn't mean no rain, just not normal rain that reaches over the watershed area of Gatun and Madden Lakes.  Draft limits for ships using the new locks has been reduced to 44' (max draft is 50') and there has been no change to the draft limit for ships using the original locks at 39.5'.  Rains have returned sufficient enough to suspend further draft limit cuts for the time being.   That certainly doesn't mean mother nature will continue to cooperate, but the sky isn't quite ready to fall.

 

A finite amount of water for Canal use and what to do about it has been on Canal authorities radar for a long time.  All the way back in the 70s the Canal commissioned studies to build another dam in a part of Gatun Lake to increase the Canal's ability to store water for use in the dry periods.  These studies were shelved for a number of reasons, but the need was for additional water was clearly understood.  In 2003 the Authoridad de Canal de Panama (ACP) commissioned a study for an additional reservoir to the west of Gatun Lake and that study has been collecting dust like most of the other studies.  I guess my point is, this is not a new or unique set of circumstances, these dry spells occur every 4 to 6 years along with El Nino, always sends the Canal into a tail spin, always the worst drought, rains return and nothing happens to address the problem.

 

I'll step down off the soap box for now, good night all.