I figured that the canal was filled with ocean water, I’m sure there was some design purpose in keeping it freshwater when you wouldn’t have this problem with ocean water but it seems like a very poor choice at the moment.
The majority of the actual water path from one side to the other goes through Gatun Lake (freshwater), which is above sea level. The canal doesn’t go through the continent so much as over it. The locks and canal trenches were placed to take advantage of existing inland waterways as much as possible. The drought is a problem because the level of water in the lake is low enough that it isn’t filling the canal properly.
It’s probably due to the change in elevation as well as using a lake as a chunk of the canals length, it was probably cheaper to use the fresh water instead of pumping seawater over those distances
I figured that the canal was filled with ocean water, I’m sure there was some design purpose in keeping it freshwater when you wouldn’t have this problem with ocean water but it seems like a very poor choice at the moment.
The Panama Canal isn’t a straight level trench from one coast to the other.
The majority of the actual water path from one side to the other goes through Gatun Lake (freshwater), which is above sea level. The canal doesn’t go through the continent so much as over it. The locks and canal trenches were placed to take advantage of existing inland waterways as much as possible. The drought is a problem because the level of water in the lake is low enough that it isn’t filling the canal properly.
Lake Gatun, which is used to fill the locks, is one of the main freshwater reservoirs for Panama City and Colon.
It’s probably due to the change in elevation as well as using a lake as a chunk of the canals length, it was probably cheaper to use the fresh water instead of pumping seawater over those distances