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The Nicaragua Canal

154K views 325 replies 68 participants last post by  jam5 
#1 ·
Nicaragua plans its own Panama Canal

NICARAGUA’S Canal dreams

NICARAGUA will reveal a $20bn (£11.2bn, E16bn) plan this week to build a canal linking the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, which would compete with the near 100-year-old Panama Canal.

Full story here.
 
#38 · (Edited)
#39 ·
Good article on the possible usage of Lake Nicaragua for the inter oceanic canal:

Lake Nicaragua is one of the largest reservoirs of fresh water in the Americas. Its outflow through the San Juan River (averaging 475 m³/sec), as well as its capacity for storage, high water quality, its geographic location, and its connection with the Caribbean Sea through the San Juan River are features that render it attractive for a number of purposes, such as navigation, energy production, irrigation, potable water supply, tourism, recreation, and fishing, to name the principal ones. For many years, transportation on the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua has been an important factor in the socioeconomic and political development of Nicaragua. Interest in the construction of an inter-oceanic route tapping the potential of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua dates back to Spanish colonial times. The first historical data records that the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua were used to transport the riches discovered on the western coasts of South America and shipped to Spain during the conquest of the continent. History shows that since 1504, Nicaragua has made over 10 attempts to construct an inter-oceanic canal. To date, however, none of the projects has come to fruition.

With the discovery of gold in California (1848), transiting North Americans sought a faster route to the gold mines through the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. Reports from that time indicate that in 1853 some 20,800 traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States using that route. Other data show that at that time some 2,000 passengers were transported via that route on a monthly basis. However, an earthquake that occurred in July 1863 increased sedimentation in the San Juan River mouth, greatly increasing the difficulties of navigating that part of the river. Later, the construction of the transcontinental railway across the US in 1869 put an end to the great demand for passenger transport through Nicaragua.

Nevertheless, at the beginning of this century, interest in commercial navigation through Lake Nicaragua resumed. Of the studies conducted since the 1900s on the construction of an inter-oceanic canal, the following are noteworthy:

*

Isthmian Canal Commission, 1899-1901
*

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1929-1931
*

Canal Study Commission, 1970
*

Japanese Commission, 1989

Further projects related to the construction of an inter-oceanic canal have been presented more recently, using either the waters of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua or building a railway connecting the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, or a combination of the two.

A number of boats operated on Lake Nicaragua and in the San Juan River and its tributaries, facilitate the trading of goods with the Pacific region of the country and the transport of passengers to towns located in the western sector of the lake and in the Pacific zone. In some communities like North San Juan, existing water-based transportation routes between communities in Costa Rica is well known. Practically all the trade in between these communities takes place through Puerto Viejo in the Sarapiquí canton. Also, emergency medical attention and sometimes other basic services, such as telephone communications with Nicaragua and education, are obtained through Costa Rica, along the waterways.

The main port facilities located in the SJRB are the following: San Juan del Norte, El Castillo, and Sábalos, located on the San Juan River; Granada, San Jorge, San Carlos, and San Miguelito, located on the banks of Lake Nicaragua; and Moyogalpa, Altagracia, and Solentiname, located on Ometepe Island and in the Solentiname Archipelago, respectively. Los Chiles, Puerto Viejo, and Barra Colorado are ports situated on the tributaries flowing from the southern sector of the basin. A feasibility study of the local transportation system in Lake Nicaragua and in the San Juan River conducted in 1970 found that the economic and financial benefit of the project was positive. Since then, however, there have been no new estimates on local navigation in these water bodies.

Navigation on the San Juan River and in Lake Nicaragua are affected by the progressive sedimentation of both water bodies. Navigation is also an important source of pollution of the water resources, due to the fact that boats are washed and serviced in both water bodies.

The waterbodies, therefore, become depositaries of hydrocarbon residue, agricultural chemicals, basic grains, pigs, domesticated animals, and other products that are transported across these bodies of water.

The basin’s water resources have great potential for hydroelectric generation. The considerable flow rates, combined with significant altitude changes within the basin, have led to the development of this type of project in the SJRB. To date, there are four known hydroelectric development proposals to use the average flow rate at which Lake Nicaragua empties into the San Juan River as the source of the power supply. None of these options have been discarded as yet. The projects are: Tipitapa-Tamarindo, Brito, Brito Residual, and Interlagos.

The construction of any of these projects will mean substantive changes in the average flow rate of the San Juan River, reducing it by some 36%. This will undoubtedly have a strong impact on navigation in the river. Aspects to be considered if these projects are implemented should be their effects on the aquatic life in the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua, the flora and fauna existing in the area to be inundated by the proposed dams, and the environmental impact that will result from all the associated construction works.

In addition to the large projects discussed above, there are currently several public and private hydroelectric projects in the southern sector of the SJRB, which are at different stages of development. The private projects are approved by the ICE and carried out by private firms.

The possible conflicts in water use are one of the aspects evoked whenever an option for hydroelectric power or inter-oceanic canal construction is presented, especially since between 300 and 400 m³/sec of the existing river flows abstracted to meet the requirements for potable water and irrigation water supplying suitable farmland in the Pacific Region of Nicaragua.

On the banks of lakes Managua and Nicaragua and in the León-Chinandega plain, there are 742,000 hectares of land suitable for irrigation (152,000 ha in the Lake Managua zone, 432,000 ha in the area of Lake Nicaragua, and 158,000 distributed in the León-Chinandega area). The potential, available water in the León-Chinandega plain and along the banks of the lakes is approximately 745 MMC. This volume could provide the water supply to irrigate approximately 138,000 ha, resulting in a shortfall in the amount needed to irrigate some 600,000 ha. To make up for this shortfall, a number of different alternative projects have been proposed, all of them drawing on Lake Nicaragua as the source. The most recent study, "Irrigation Strategy for Pacific Nicaragua", envisaged damming the waters of the San Juan River at San Isidro, maintaining the water level of Lake Managua at 32 masl, draining water from Lake Nicaragua into Lake Managua by constructing a canal on the Tipitapa River, and pumping the water available up to the 100 masl mark. This scheme would then irrigate, using gravity, the 600,000 ha needing irrigation that are below this elevation. This project envisages generating power through the Tamarindo River, the replenishing of Lake Managua and the provision of drinking water supplies to towns requiring this service, including Managua.

Like the hydroelectric projects, this project will change the average flow rate of the San Juan River, which, in turn, will impact heavily on navigation of the river. Aspects to be considered with this project should be the effects on aquatic life related to the San Juan River, lakes Nicaragua and Managua, the existing flora and fauna in the area to be flooded by the proposed dam, and the environmental impact of the construction and all related works. There is conflict in the use of water for this irrigation project because, the wider the area irrigated, the less water available for power generation and the drinking water supply.

Though the drinking water supply is a problem in the basin, it does not place any particular pressure on the resource because of the size of the demand. However, municipal and industrial wastewater does indeed pose a threat to water quality. Due to the fact that most of the population deposits its used water in riverbeds, streams, or directly in the lake or river with no prior treatment, the quality of the water of those bodies of water has noticeably deteriorated. Critical points are San Miguelito, San Jorge, Granada, Juigalpa, San Carlos, El Castillo, Sábalos and San Juan del Norte.

Source: The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (“GS/OAS”)
 
#43 ·
Dutch firms look at feasibility of Nicaragua canal
Associated Press – Mon, Jul 30, 2012

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Two Dutch companies say they have been awarded a $720,000 (€587,000) contract by the Nicaraguan government to study the feasibility of building a rival to the Panama canal that would travel through Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Since the early 1800s, the so-called "Nicaragua Canal" has been considered a serious possibility as a route that could link the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, though the Panama Canal ultimately won out. Some experts believe the growth of global shipping means that two canals through Central America would benefit the industry, especially if a Nicaragua Canal could accommodate larger ships.

Infrastructure company Royal HaaskoningDHV and Ecorys said Monday they will complete their study by early 2013. The Nicaraguan government has loosely estimated construction costs at $20 billion and would seek international investors.
 
#44 ·
Nicaragua Inching Towards Canal Construction with Financing from Chinese Firm

Nicaragua has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company on financing for a $30 billion inter-oceanic canal, a government official told Efe on Friday.

The document was signed by Nicaraguan deputy foreign minister and president of the Grand Interoceanic Canal Authority, Manuel Coronel Kautz, and the head of the HK Nicaragua Development Inversion Company, Wing Jang, the official said.

More here: http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews...ruction-with-financing-from-chinese-fi/18373/
 
#46 ·
There should be an alternative to the Panama Canal considering so much global shipping goes through there. After that, the next big canal should be an alternative to the Malacca straits by cutting through Thailand, easing shipping between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea (Europe-Asia trade).
 
#47 ·
^^
Such a canal would lead to significant benefits for Nicaragua...both from construction and shipping tax after the project is completed...this along with the expansion of the Panama canal would also increase the shipping traffic in the Caribbean and central american ports.:banana:
 
#48 · (Edited)
Look to like a pipe dream, I don't think the people involved in proposing this canal really can grip the amount of earthworks involved. They would have to dig up biblical amounts of earth, the construction time is probably in the decade range rather than a few years.

I also don't think we will ever see a thai or malay canal, there are huge mountain ranges that would requier tunneling or ridiculously large ship locks lifting the ships hundreds of metres up and down. Not to mention the 100 km distance to dig.
 
#50 ·
Well, the Thai canal has been mentioned before, but seems they were never serious enough to get the shovels going.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Thai-canal-plan-to-save-millions/2005/03/28/1111862317996.html

The Nicaragua alternative is quite intriguing, since it's a much wider expanse of land to dig through, but that may mean serious environmental impact on Lake Nicaragua, where I suspect the canal will somehow drain into on both sides. But then, if China is funding it, I don't think there will be a shortage of money or engineers to figure out how to dig through mountains and such.
 
#51 ·
Nicaragua panel OKs canal deal for Chinese group
10 June 2013

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -- A Nicaraguan congressional committee has approved giving a China-based consortium the concession to build and operate a canal between the Pacific and Caribbean, fast-tracking the huge development project over objections from the opposition.

Infrastructure committee president Jenny Martinez says the bill was immediately sent to the National Assembly after Monday's vote.

Opposition lawmakers voted against it, saying the initiative is being rushed and has too many obscure points.

President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista Front controls the national legislature, which is expected to vote on the bill Thursday.

The Chinese company HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Ltd. is working with the Nicaraguan government on the canal project. Experts say it could take 11 years to finish, cost $40 billion and require digging about 130 miles (200 kilometers) of waterway.
 
#54 ·
Good article. There should be no stopping to this. It is illogical for the canal not to be built!
 
#52 · (Edited)
North to Nicaragua, Honduras is closing diplomatic ties with Taiwan, because China is interested in constructing an interoceanic rail. Why Honduras? It's simple, Honduras is the only country in Latin America with the deepest bays, which make it possible for the largest ships to stop there. Why is this needed? China and the USA are trading so much, that the Panama canal will inevitably become insufficient. Ships have to wait in line in the panama canal. But with a train from Amapala (pacific), Honduras, to Trujillo (atlantic coast), Honduras, this will be very profitable. Plus, china wants to invest in central america, because they are experiencing a cost/time disadavntage with mexico, and nicaragua's education standards are the lowest in central america.

Honduras is the place to invest right now. At this moment three huge hidroelectric power plants are being built. This will lower the cost of energy, and make Honduras more competitive.
 
#53 ·
Interesting!! ^^ But what does that have to do with the CANAL DE NICARAGUA ???
 
#55 ·
Parliament also approved the concession:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22899744

The Nicaraguan Congress has approved a proposal to have a canal built linking the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.

A Hong Kong-based company has been granted a 50-year concession to build the waterway, which will rival the Panama Canal.

The $40bn (£25bn) plan has been criticised by environmentalists, who say cargo ships will create a permanent risk to Lake Nicaragua.

But President Daniel Ortega says the project will bring prosperity.

Nicaraguan leaders have for centuries dreamt of building a canal linking its Caribbean coast to the Pacific.

Several initiatives failed and the project suffered what seemed to be a final blow when the United States decided to build a canal in Panama, which opened in 1914.

"One of Nicaragua's great riches is its geographic position, that's why this idea has always been around,'' Sandinista government congressman Jacinto Suarez in Congress on Thursday.

"Opposing it is unpatriotic,'' he added.

The projected was approved in Congress by 61 to 28 votes.

A Chinese company - the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co - was chosen to carry out the project.

Critics say the company lacks the necessary experience to undertake such a huge project.

The concession can be extended for another 50 years once the canal is operational.

The Nicaraguan government will get a minority share of the profits generated by the canal.
 
#57 ·
Why not?

Here's the website for the group given the concession:

HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment's (HKND Group)

Code:
http://hknd-group.com/
 
#66 ·
Realy big chalange. Level of lake is over 30 m above see level.
Come on. Our Elbląg Canal (built 150 years ago) has 99,5-meter difference between the lowest and the highest point. Panama Canal has the lake at 26 meters above the sea level. IMO success of this project depends only on three things:
1) money
2) money
3) money

:)
 
#62 ·
^^ It's Nicaragua not a developed country nor even a middle income country. Also, there is no way for you to know what or what has not been done.

Although, there is an article on this thread regarding a feasibility study carried out by two Dutch firms since last year. It is likely that they concluded the feasibility of the project and that's why the building will commence.

Also, check out the website of the private business group, http://hknd-group.com/
 
#63 · (Edited)
Why another canal is needed? - CNN breaks it down in this video

 
#64 ·
It is interesting how so many people hates this project, especially people from certain Latin countries. Instead of being happy because one country is trying to pull its people out of poverty, they are hating the project and wishing all kind of bad things. I really hope that they project goes well because it is a way to push Nicaragua out of the underdevelopment and poverty. It will be a way to provide employment for thousands of people, so I don't think anything wrong in that.
 
#65 · (Edited)
Nicaragua Revives Its Canal Dream

LATIN AMERICA NEWS - Updated June 13, 2013, 7:32 p.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal - New York City, USA

Nicaragua Revives Its Canal Dream

Article

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...543432234604100.html?KEYWORDS=nicaragua+canal

By JOSÉ DE CÓRDOBA

Nicaragua's legislators gave their poverty-stricken country one more chance at a dream that has eluded it for nearly 200 years, granting a Hong Kong company the right to build a $40 billion inter-oceanic canal.
Supporters of the 50-year concession, approved Thursday, hope that it will propel Nicaragua out of its misery by boosting employment and economic growth. But there is also ample suspicion that the project will flounder, as so many others have done since the first government contract for a canal through Nicaragua was awarded in 1825.
Enlarge Image


Associated Press. A worker prepares a flag to hang on the wharf off the shores of Cocibolca Lake, also known as Nicaragua Lake, in Granada, Nicaragua, last week.

"The whole history of Nicaragua revolves around this," said Paul Oquist, President Daniel Ortega's private secretary for national policy. "We see the project taking the country out of poverty and underdevelopment."
The project envisions building a canal as long as 286 kilometers (178 miles), depending on which of four possible routes is used, as well as two deep-water ports, two free-trade zones, an oil pipeline, a railroad and an international airport.
Critics said the project is a chimera. "They have sold this as a panacea to the country's ills," said Eliseo Nuñez, an opposition deputy who opposed the concession. "Ortega needs to sell hope."
Some experts say there is no need for another canal in Central America and doubt it will ever be built. A Nicaraguan canal would face competition from the Panama Canal—now undergoing a $5 billion expansion that will soon enable it to service larger ships—and transcontinental road and rail transport in the U.S.
The law granting the concession to HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co., known as HKND Group, whose sole owner is Wang Jing, a 40-year-old Beijing-based entrepreneur, was introduced last week to Nicaragua's congress, which is controlled by Mr. Ortega's ruling Sandinista party.



Mr. Wang told The Wall Street Journal the project was a response to "the 100-year-old dream of the Nicaraguan people." He said he was convinced the world needed a wider and deeper interoceanic canal than Panama's.
In 1902, Nicaragua missed out when the proponent for the rival Panama project sent U.S. senators a stamp showing Nicaragua's Momotombo volcano spouting smoke. Spooked senators cast their vote for Panama.
Nicaraguan government officials today see the canal project as the country's ticket out of grinding poverty.
Though work on some of the pre-feasibility studies has barely started and isn't scheduled to be finished until next year, Mr. Oquist is already projecting that Nicaragua will more than double its economic growth to 10.8% next year from a projected 4.2% this year. He expects growth to shoot up to 15.1% by 2015.
According to the contract, Mr. Wang will pay Nicaragua up to $10 million a year as a fee for the 50-year concession, which is renewable. On the 11th year of operation, Nicaragua will own 10% of the company, a figure that would rise to 100% in a century. Mr. Wang will pay for the feasibility studies and is responsible for arranging funding for the project.
Nicaraguan canal proponents base their case partly on a McKinsey & Co. study that concluded that a movement to ever-larger ships and growth in world-wide trade would make a Nicaragua canal economically viable, according to people close to the project. McKinsey wouldn't confirm any study, citing its confidentiality policies.
Not everyone agrees that the numbers add up. "I can't see how this canal could be financially or economically justified," said Jean-Paul Rodrigue, a transportation expert at Hofstra University. "It could be the biggest white elephant in human history."
The HKND's Mr. Wang is chairman of Beijing-based Xinwei Telecom Enterprise Group, a closely held company that makes wireless networking equipment. In a December speech to new employees, Mr. Wang said Xinwei was on its way to posting a $326 million profit for 2012.
Mr. Wang registered his canal company in Hong Kong in August. A month later, on Sept. 5, he met President Ortega in Nicaragua. That day, Mr. Wang and the Nicaraguan government signed a memorandum of understanding—which wasn't announced at the time—authorizing Mr. Wang to promote the financing and participate in the construction of a canal.
He and Mr. Ortega also discussed a telecommunications proposal, and Xinwei was awarded a $300 million telecommunications contract in Nicaragua, according to the company.
In Nicaragua, the general feeling is that the bulk of the money for the canal will come from China, which is popularly seen in Latin America as capable of spending enough to complete any project. "The liquidity is in China," said Mr. Oquist.
Xinwei's website features photographs highlighting Mr. Wang's political connections in China, a country where business and politics are often intertwined, but HKND Group said it is a private company with no affiliation to the Chinese government or to Xinwei, and didn't expect any Chinese government participation in the Nicaragua project. HKND said it expects to seek financing from "a broad range of international sources."
The weight of history against a canal being built in Nicaragua is enormous. In 1825, the government of the Republic of Central America signed a deal with a New York businessman to dig a canal across Nicaragua. Since then, at least a dozen plans have gone nowhere.
"It's been like looking for a nonexistent El Dorado," said Arturo Cruz, a former Nicaraguan ambassador to Washington. "It's done us a lot of psychological harm as a country." Mr. Cruz said, however, that he is less skeptical than usual about the current project.
Mr. Wang's company dismissed doubts about the project, and said that it had hired consulting company Environmental Resources Management and experienced advisers to develop feasibility studies.
"We are committed to ensure the proper design, construction and operation of the Nicaragua grand canal," Mr. Wang said.

Fanfan Wang in Shanghai contributed to this article. Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared June 14, 2013, on page A11 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Nicaragua Revives Its Canal Dream.

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Thank you.

Chuckie.
06.06.2013
 
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