diff --git a/server/map_handler/add_new_lake.py b/server/map_handler/add_new_lake.py
index 559385a8ed7ca0b4f1a16168f1078fb7c993ec79..46a2a4809c573466b97acb25efef456fb783e928 100644
--- a/server/map_handler/add_new_lake.py
+++ b/server/map_handler/add_new_lake.py
@@ -188,16 +188,17 @@ def write_json_to_file(lake_name: str, map_data: dict):
         json.dump(map_data, f)
 
     # Read all_system_lakes.json
-    with open(LAKE_RELATIONS_PATH + 'all_lake_names.json', 'r') as file:
-        data = json.load(file)
+    with open(LAKE_RELATIONS_PATH + 'all_lake_names.json', 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+        data = json.load(f)
 
     # Check if the lake name exists in the list
     if lake_name not in data:
         data.append(lake_name)  # Only append to list if it does not already exist
 
         # Update all_lake_names.json with new lake name
-        with open(LAKE_RELATIONS_PATH + 'all_lake_names.json', 'w') as file:
-            json.dump(data, file, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2)
+        with open(LAKE_RELATIONS_PATH + 'all_lake_names.json', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
+            json.dump(data, f, ensure_ascii=False, indent=2)
+
 
 
 # Plotting the map can take a considerable amount of time, especially when creating maps with many