Panama Feels Squeeze Over Canal Expansion

Several proposals call for new dams and reservoirs to increase the amount of water available to move more ships through the locks. Each passage of the 50-mile canal flushes 52 million gallons of fresh water through the locks from man-made Gatun Lake to move the ship up from one ocean and down to the other. The challenge, say scientists including Stanley Hackedon of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City, is to ensure that the expansion plans include water-recycling systems so that the fresh water stored in the elevated reservoir and pumped into the locks isn't flushed out to sea with the ships, as is now the practice.

A drive along the trans-isthmus highway exposes the ravages of past industrial projects. Desiccated forest surrounds a cement plant where ash choked the life out of the jungle. Weather patterns -- altered by the vast water containment that turned jungle valleys into 170 square miles of Gatun Lake -- drop so much rain on the coastal highland that people call it "the weeping mountains."

"Project promoters seduced the government and population with the promise of jobs. But their track record has been poor," Hackedon said, pointing out the 30% jobless rate in Colon, home to the busiest port in the Americas. "They say there has been $8 billion put into this business, but look, there's not one single flower."

Expansion boosters like the Canal Authority's Aleman insist that the next era of canal works will be different, that concern for all aspects of social well-being will be considered during what he expects to be a lively and protracted debate. Once the discussion gets going, he predicted, "We will have 2.8 million experts on the Panama Canal."