Chris Kraul a freelance writer based in Bogatá, Columbia says work has already begun on Nicaragua's 'bigger and better' canal to connect twooceans. The 173 mile canal--three times the size of the Panama Canal which is too small for today's superships--is wildly ambitious and guaranteed to cause an environmental disaster. It is backed by a Chinese businessman Wang Jing and the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Damage to Lake Nicaragua, Central America's largest body of freshwater and a source of drinking water, will be tremendous. The amount of dredging across the width of the lake would cover the state of Connecticut to a depth of one foot. Fish and other freshwater species will die from the suspended silt and brackish water invasion. Mangroves on the Pacific Coast that are habitat for sea turtles and a host of other species will be eradicated to make room for a port capable of handling huge container ships bringing cheap product from Asia. On the Caribbean side of the 100 foot deep canal is the 250 square mile Colombian Biosphere Reserve protecting the second largest coral reef in the Caribbean. Marine traffic will certainly impact this reef at a time when reefs are dying around the world. The proposed Mesoamerican Biological Corridor which would connects reserves and other natural lands from Panama to Mexico would be cut [map]. Wildlife use this network of natural lands to migrate and disperse, insuring biodiversity in a biologically rich region of the world. About 400,000 hectares of rainforest and wetlands will be destroyed to contruct the canal. Multiple indigenous communities will be also be dispossesed along the route.
The canal is not an economic sure thing. Its cost is so high, currently estimated at $50 billion, and the potential use so uncertain that the canal is best described as a national bet against the odds. The directly competitive Panama Canal is undergoing a $5.25 billion expansion to increase its capacity. Nevertheless the government has granted HKND Group, a Hong Kong company, a fifty year concession, renewable for another fifty years. The concession includes the right to develop related projects in the zone such as an airport near Rivas, a free trade zone resembling the one in Colon, Panama and tourist resorts initially built as worker housing. One of the 'resorts' is planned for picturesque Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua. The government has yet to publicly release economic studies or the company's environmental assessments of the project. Yet the concession sailed through the National Assembly with little debate. One consulting US ecologist said, the project has "more staying power than one might have expected....It is a great example of how a bad ideas never go away." {10.06.13} The consulting firm making the environmental assessment was given only one year to assess the impacts of a development project so gigantic that a proper assessment should take several years to complete. The company study's objectivity has been questioned by independent scientists.An astronomical amount of sludge dug from the lake bed will kill numerous populations of freshwater and marine fish found nowhere else. The lake is home to 40 endemic species of fish. Invasive species introduced bt bilge water and ship hulls are a major concern. Cichlid fish [image below] are an important species in evolutionary research, generating dozens of research papers from around the world. The arrival of non-native species can have a devasting impact as demonstrated by the decline in Lake Nicaragua's cichlid populations since the introduction of tilapia from Africa. The InterAmerican Network of Academies of Sciences is attempting to produce an independent impact report, one that will not minimize the threats to endangered wildlife and human dislocation.
