PANAMA CANAL

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 127, 3 June 1929, Page 10

PANAMA CANAL

INCREASING THE CAPACITY

CONSERVATION OF WATER

(From -'The Post's' Representative.) SAN tfKANCISCO, Ist May. The general manager of the Compagnie dv Canal cle Suez, Mr. Georga E. Bonnet, has inspected the Panama Canal, and expresses the opinion that it will serve for twenty years more. "The only real difficulty the Canal is facing now," Mr. Bonnet said, "is that at somo times of the year there is not enough water available from Gatun Lake to operate the locks easily, and frequently not enough to handle traffic. The only thing to do is what they are doing now—building a dam on the Chagres Biver, which flows into Gatun Lake, to conserve the water during the wet season for the dry." Mr. Bonnet-said it was a pity this had not been done two or three years ago. An average of nineteen boats a day now uses the Canal, he says. When' the dam is completed in five or six years, the Canal should be able to handle seventy vessels a day, instead of the present probable maximum of about forty. The statistics of the Suez Canal, which compare very closely with those of this waterway, and are available over a longer period, show that traffic is doubled about every ten years. This would make the Panama Canal adequate i or another twenty years. A deepening of the Gaillard Cut, reduction of the amount of water needed for electricity, and other methods of obtaining water should be available to increase its future possibilities. The increase in traffic has been so great that the United ' States is seriously considering the establishment of an alternative route. The Nicaraguan Canal has been surveyed a number of times, and the concession for construction has been secured by the United States. Congress may discuss the authorisation of the work at any moment, especially -in view of the increased safeguard from the point of views of national defence, which i 3 4. very live topic in public discussion these days in the United States.