Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a canal 82 km (51 mi) long that cuts through the isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in Central America. The canal has a huge impact on shipping, as it removes the need for ships to travel the long and dangerous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn (at the southernmost tip of South America). The canal saves a total of about 18,000 miles on a trip from New York to San Francisco by sea.

Current issues

When the Canal was built in 1914, it was designed to be large enough to accommodate any vessel in the world. Technologies have advanced rapidly since then, and many vessels today are too large to pass through the canal. It is estimated that half of all canal transits will be by Panamax vessels by the year 2006; that 60% of ships being planned for construction in 1999 were post-Panamax and 30% of the global shipping fleet is projected to be post-Panamax size by 2020.

Related Topics:
Technologies - Panamax - 2006

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Despite this, the Panama canal presently experiences congestion due to the large amounts of traffic traveling through. In 2004, 14,035 vessels passed through the canal (an average of 38.3 vessels/day), and it is expected that the canal will soon approach its capacity. In 2004, the ACP estimated that canal was operating at about 93 percent of capacity.

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Despite having enjoyed a priviledged position for many years, the canal is increasingly facing competition from other quarters. One competitor, Canal Interoceano de Nicaragua S.A (CIN), has already proposed to build a land bridge across Nicaragua. Speculation continues over a possible new canal that will be capable of accommodating post-Panamax vessels, through Mexico, Colombia or Nicaragua. Critics have also voiced their concerns over the planned increase in canal tolls, suggesting that the Suez Canal may become a viable alternative for cargoes from Asia to the U.S. East Coast.

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A significant problem is the decreasing average amount of water in Gatún Lake, due largely to deforestation. 52 million gallons of fresh water from the lake are dumped into the sea by the locks every time a ship transits the canal. The issue is the seasonal nature of rainfall in Panama; the rainforest plays a role by absorbing this rain, and then releasing it at a steady rate into the lake. With the reduction in vegetation, rain flows quickly down the deforested slopes into the lake, from where the excess is spilled out into the ocean; this results in a shortfall of water during the dry season, when there is comparatively little water flowing to the lake to replenish it. Deforestation also causes silt to be more easily eroded from the area around Gatún Lake and collect at its bottom, reducing its capacity.

Related Topics:
Gatún Lake - Deforestation - Rainforest - Silt

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