When a cargo ship navigates through the Panama Canal it is not going through a neatly cut waterway from one side to the other, it is mostly navigating a lake which covers half the country. That lake is located 26 Meters above sea level. So the ships need to be raised to the level of the lake and then dropped back into the ocean.
Thanks to a drought the lake is drying up and making it harder for ships to navigate the canal. If the canal becomes harder to navigate, it would impact trade between Europe, US and Asia.
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Panama Canal | Podcast