A competitor to the Panama Canal may begin construction soon. WorldPress.org‘s Ailana Navarez reports on the beginnings of a rival canal in Nicaragua, and the power behind the dream:
In Nicaragua, a dream nearly as old as its independence is finally in development. In December of last year, the country celebrated the groundbreaking of a new canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The “Great Nicaragua Canal” will be a rival to the famous Panama Canal and yet another bridge between two rising international players: Latin America and China.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government says the canal will provide many local economic benefits, including an end to extreme poverty and unemployment via an estimated annual growth of 10 percent. He added that the $50 billion project will open a new era for a “more sovereign” and “interconnected” country. But what are the implications of its competition to the already established Panama Canal? And how far can the term “sovereignty” be used when the project is foreign funded?
Who’s backing it? China. Why?
… Chinese maritime vessels are being constructed larger, by an estimated annual rate of 3 to 4 percent. This has led to some of these mega-ships having to navigate around South America through its hazardous southernmost Tierra del Fuego point, all because they were too large for Panama’s canal. And regardless of Panamanian lock additions in recent years—resulting in 13.7 meters in depth and 90 to 300 meters in length—Nicaragua is still projected to more than double both measurements.
But there’s more:
It is also worth noting that the new Nicaraguan canal could be of further strategic importance to Beijing, in that it would allow passage of their warships or prevent a NATO country from closing a seaway to Chinese interests during future diplomatic crises.
Wikipedia has an entry:
The 259.4 km long canal as planned will have three sections. The West Canal runs from Brito at the Pacific Ocean up the Rio Brito valley, crosses the continental divide, and after passing through the Rio Las Lajas valley enters Lake Nicaragua; its length is 25.9 km. The Nicaragua Lake section measures 106.8 km and runs from 4 km south of San Jorge to 8 km south of San Miguelito. The Eastern Canal is the longest section with 126.7 km and will be built along the Rio Tule valley through the Caribbean highland to the Rio Punta Gorda valley to meet the Caribbean Sea.
Both the West Canal and the East Canal will each have one lock with 3 consecutive chambers to raise ships to the level of Lake Nicaragua that has an average water elevation of 31.3 m, range 30.2-33.0 m. The western Brito Lock is 14.5 km inland from the Pacific, and the eastern Camilo Lock is 13.7 km inland from the Caribbean Sea. The dimensions of each of the chambers of the locks are 520 m (1,706 ft) long, 75 m (246 ft) wide, and 27.6 m (91 ft) threshold depth. As locks generally define the limit of the size of ships that can be handled, the Nicaragua Canal is being designed to allow passage for larger ships than those that pass through the Panama Canal. For comparison, the new third set of locks in the Panama expansion will only be 427 m (1,401 ft) long, 55 m (180 ft) wide, and 18.3 m (60 ft) deep.
By comparison, the Panama Canal’s length is 77.1 km.
HKND holds a 50 year concession (WaPo claims 100 year) for this project. Al Jazeera America reports on this issue:
… Nicaraguan environmentalists are horrified. They say the concession is a new form of colonization. “Nicaraguan citizens will have to face grave challenges in order to rid themselves of colonizers,” Mónica López Baltodano, an environmental lawyer and the head of Fundación Popol Na, a Nicaraguan nongovernmental organization, told local media in December. “We’re going to have to initiate a struggle for national liberation, much like Sandino,” she said, referring to Augusto César Sandino, a guerrilla leader who led a struggle against U.S. occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.
The no-bid concession, fast-tracked through the National Assembly in a day, with no public debate, violates Nicaragua’s Constitution and more than 10 international environmental treaties, she said. “The constitution established that any concession of natural resources has to be approved by all the municipalities affected and all representatives on indigenous lands,” she said. “This concession does not do that.”
Sandinista legacy project? Chinese vanity project? Obscure Chinese strategy? They do think big, building the Three Gorges Dam, which has been the center of controversy.
