By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor 

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – At the end of 2014, construction began on the Grand Canal in Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan government has kept the details of the project secret since it was first proposed only 2.5 years ago. In return for a concession to the Chinese company HKND, the Nicaraguan government hopes the project will produce billions of dollars of investment and tens of thousands of jobs. The 278-km long canal system will take an estimated 5 years to complete. The canal project is the dream of the Nicaraguan government and Chinese business investors, the canal would transform the remove coastal regions of Nicaragua and would carry cargo too large for the Panama Canal, which celebrated its central last year. According to Pedro J. Alvarez, a editorialist for the peer-reviewed periodical Science, the Nicaraguan government failed to show sufficient evidence that it has appropriately accounted for the impact on the environment as well the potential effects of the project local residents who may lose their home or witness severe degradation of the environment they depend on to survive.

If construction is completed the Canal would be three times as deep as the Panama Canal, a feat that would require the removal of more than 4.5 billion cubic meters of earth which the Guardian reports would be “enough to bury the entire island of Manhattan up to the 21st floor of the Empire State Building.” The project would also be a shock to local economies and communities bringing sudden development on of Central America’s most sparsely populated regions. Senior officials compare the scale of change that will be brought to the region to the regions first contact with colonizers. “It’s like when the Spanish came here, they brought a new culture. The same is coming with the canal,” said Manuel Coronel Kautz, the garrulous head of the canal authority. “It is very difficult to see what will happen later – just as it was difficult for the indigenous people to imagine what would happen when they saw the first [European] boats.”

Protesters have called the project a form of Chinese imperialism and the Taiwanese government has called on China to respect the independence of Nicaragua. “If the Chinese government is behind this project, it has to be responsible for everything,” said an official from Taiwan’s embassy in Nicaragua. “If it fails, that’s a bad image. They have to maintain their distance.”

The Nicaraguan government hopes the canal can help the nation achieve the Sandinista dream of eradicating poverty. However, when the groundbreaking ceremony took place on 22 December of last year protest against the project were held. Demonstrators cited concerns over the effects the canal project may ultimately have on indigenous and other local community and voiced doubts that the destructive project could even be finished considering the amount of capital needed for construction. Concerns have not been limited to those of protesters, Nicaragua’s neighbors, including Costa Rica have expressed concern that they have not been given enough information about that potential impacts of the large scale project, which will likely bring widespread consequences for the region.

For more information please see:

Science – Rethink the Nicaragua Canal – 23 January 2015

The Guardian – Land Of Opportunity – And Fear – Along Route of Nicaragua’s Giant New Canal – 20 January 2014

The Tico Times – Costa Rican Officials: We Still Have Little Information about Nicaragua’s Grand Canal Plans – 21 January 2015

Reuters – Doubts Deepen Over Chinese-Backed Nicaragua Canal As Work Starts – 26 December 2014