The Panama Canal announced Saturday it will reduce the maximum number of ships travelling the waterway to 31 per day, from 32 in August, due to a drought that has reduced the supply of fresh water needed to operate the locks.

That compares to daily averages of 36 to 38 ships per day under normal operation.

Nine ships per day will be allowed to use the new, bigger NeoPanamax locks and 22 per day will be handled through the older Panamax locks.

  • BadEngineering@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Why do they need to use fresh water to fill the locks? I get that pumping salt water may come with a bit more maintenance but it just seems like a waste to use all that fresh water.

      • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Easy fix, just dig down that 26 meters!

        All the way across the length of the canal.

        I’m sure a couple dudes with shovels could knock it out in a week.

        Two weeks tops.

        • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          So interesting thing

          Digging out the height difference and making it a straight shot canal would have VERY BAD ecological consequences.

          Sea level on the Pacific side is higher than on the Atlantic side, meaning that opening a straight shot canal would cause the Pacific to begin draining into the Atlantic through the canal

          This could have DRASTIC implications for the Caribbean and North Atlantic because, how much Pacific needs to get into the Atlantic before the water tables are balanced‽

          • overcast5348@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I thought sea levels were the same at the same latitude all around the globe. I feel like I’ve been lying to myself all these years now.

            • AlotOfReading@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It’s pretty unintuitive because we’re not used to dealing with ocean sized bodies of water in day to day life. Part of the explanation is just that the prevailing winds pile all the water in the Pacific up against the coast, causing higher sea levels on the West Coast. The lower salinity of the Pacific also causes lower water density, which translates to higher sea levels.

            • ebc@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              Also tides are not the same on both sides, even if they were the same average level, the tides definitely wouldn’t be synchronized. This would result in very strong currents in the canal, making it impossible to safely navigate. The most common fix for that type of situation is to put… locks in the canal.

        • Spzi@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Easy fix, just dig down that 26 meters!

          All the way across the length of the canal.

          I’m sure a couple dudes with shovels could knock it out in a week.

          Why shovels when you can use plowshares?

          Proposed uses for nuclear explosives under Project Plowshare included widening the Panama Canal, constructing a new sea-level waterway through Nicaragua nicknamed the Pan-Atomic Canal

          Or maybe we should stop messing with our climate.

    • cosmic_skillet@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      As I understand it, canal locks don’t pump water at all.

      When you’re going downhill, you allow the higher water to slowly drain out of the lock, thus lowering you to the lower level

      When you’re going uphill, you allow the higher water to slowly drain into the lock, thus raising you to the higher level.

      In both directions the water is always flowing from high to low.

      • zoe @infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        like all old century inventions, the thing isn’t sustainable since fresh water is finite, and the next thing close to regenerating those fresh reserves is energy-hungry desalination. might as well adress the problem head-on and power the canal with a power plant to actively fill the locks with sea water…but since its run by a third world country, i doubt they would do anything about it and instead act complacent and let things run their course

        • Spur4383@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Way to accuse a county that ranks 61st on the HDI of not solving a problem because they do not fail within what you call good! You’re point is similar to asking why can’t the US solve navigation issues in the Mississippi when there’s a massive drought? And then blaming them poor people in Mississippi. What a pretentious ignorant comer you made.

          • zoe @infosec.pub
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            1 year ago

            why can’t the US solve navigation issues in the Mississippi when there’s a massive drought? And then blaming them poor people in Mississippi

            that is a federal problem for which the federal government is responsable. Likewise, i was accusing the government of Panama, not its people

        • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          WTF are you on about?

          All locks work the same way as these ones, even the most modern locks in the US.

          They’re not “powered” by fresh water, they’re using the normal flow of water, harnessed by valve systems, to either allow water to accumulate in the chamber or prevent that accumulation, depending on what they’re trying to achieve. The only energy consumed is a relatively small amount of electricity to power the hydraulics that open and close the valves and the lock gates themselves. Everything else is gravity.

          • zoe @infosec.pub
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            1 year ago

            They’re not “powered” by fresh water

            tbh i am not responsible for what u did understand. ur mind, ur rules. i hate to repeat myself but what i meant is that using fresh water to fill the locks passively using gravity albeit it is tempting it is in fact a waste of fresh water. so saving fresh water must be a priority and instead we could actively fill the locks using sea water, but at an energy cost, yet it is durable since energy is abundant (especially clean forms of thereof). tbh i am waiting on the day when i can mute notifications of replies to my comments, such a distraction really…

        • stewie3128@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Having traversed the Panama Canal several times in the last 15 years, Pauli’s quote “Das is nicht einmal falsch” comes to mind.