A court ruling could permit the construction of a new reservoir to feed the water-starved Panama Canal, but the waterway managers said on July 8 that the project might take six years to build. For years, Panama has wanted to make another reservoir to supplement the main supply of water from Lake Gatun. Still, a 2006 regulation prohibited the waterway from expanding outside its traditional watershed. A recent ruling by Panama's Supreme Court allowed a re-interpretation of the boundaries, possibly clearing the way for work, canal administrator Ricaurte Vásquez said. "The fact of having a defined watershed gives the Panama Canal a territorial assurance we did not have before," Vásquez said. Authorities will still have to consult with the inhabitants of the new site around the Indio River basin and gain acceptance of the project. Approximately 12,000 people live in about 200 villages in the area.

He said the start date of the estimated $1.6 billion project "is going to depend in large measure on the work carried out with communities and inhabitants who live in the areas that could be affected."

Ilya Espino, the assistant canal administrator, believes those talks could take 1 1/2 years. Construction could then take three or four years. Not enough rain has fallen to feed the watershed system of rivers and brooks that fill the current reservoir system, whose waters fill the locks that lift ships over the terrain. The watershed also supplies fresh water to Panama City, home to about half the country's 4 million people.

The Panama Canal has decreased the maximum number of ships travelling the waterway daily due to a drought that has reduced the supply of fresh water needed to operate the locks. The cutback in canal traffic to 31 ships daily from the usual average of 36 to 38 has disrupted global shipping when other significant waterways are also having trouble. Attacks on vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi rebels have unravelled a critical international trade route, forcing vessels into longer and more costly journeys around Africa.