Panama Canal watershed
The 3,338 km2 basin that supplies the Panama Canal and most of Panama's urban drinking water, its rainfall regime and the competition for its water.
The Panama Canal watershed covers 3,338 km2 of the isthmus and supplies both the water consumed by lock operations and about 95 percent of the drinking water for Colon, Panama City and San Miguelito. Median annual rainfall across 20 representative gauges over 1950 to 2021 was 2,630 mm, with the wettest sub-basin averaging 4,852 mm.
The full article will cover the sub-basins and their relative contributions, the Chagres River and the Alhajuela and Madden reservoirs, the seasonal regime of a rainy season from May to December and a dry season from December to May, and the three way competition between navigation, hydropower and municipal supply for the same runoff. It will also treat the measurement and forecasting the Panama Canal Authority uses to set draft restrictions.