'We all need water': Panama's canal, and people, thirst for more

The depleted Panama Canal needs new water sources as climate-driven drought spotlights global warming risks to world's waterways.

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We depend on rainwater," said Ilya Espino de Marotta, the canal's first chief sustainability officer, who was appointed in January and is also charged with reducing the waterway's carbon footprint.

"You used to see a dry year every 15 to 20 years. Now we saw a dry year in 2016, one in 2019, one in 2023 so obviously there's a climate issue we need to address," she said.

The resulting water scarcity is a major problem for canal authorities as each vessel passing through the 50-mile (80-km) trans-oceanic waterway uses some 51 million gallons (193 million litres) of water from Gatún Lake.

The lake also provides drinking water to about half of Panama's 4.5 million people and balancing these key but competing demands on a finite resource will be a critical issue for whoever comes to power after a presidential election in May.

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