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Agence France-Presse

Hundreds of farmers on Tuesday demonstrated against a new US$50 billion waterway aimed at rivalling the Panama Canal, irate at plans to expropriate the land they work.
“We do not want the canal to be built. Nobody should come in here and take over our land,” said Ronald Enriquez at a march in the southern town of Potosi, where participants scuffled with police.
The mega-project through Nicaragua – which would link the Caribbean and the Pacific – has been assigned to a Chinese company, HK Nicaragua Development (HKND).

Demonstrators chanted “We do not want the Chinese here,” and “the police are on the side of the Chinese,” at the second such show of opposition in the Rivas department (province) in less than a week.
The Great Inter-Oceanic Canal Commission, which is managing the project, said it would pay fair prices to landowners whose property is taken for public use.
Work on the waterway is scheduled to begin in December after HKND, the Hong Kong-based company run by Chinese billionaire investor Wang Jing, unveiled the route of the proposed inter-ocean waterway.
The route starts on the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the River Brito, heads south through the city of Rivas and crosses Lake Nicaragua – the largest freshwater body in Central America.
From Lake Nicaragua, it goes by the Tule and Punta Gordas rivers until it reaches the southern Caribbean by Bluefields Bay.
The route near the Costa Rican border, chosen by HKND and the Nicaraguan government, is 278km long, with 105km of that in Lake Nicaragua. If realised, the canal will be up to 30 metres deep and up to 520 metres wide.

“This project is going to be the biggest built in the history of humanity,” Wang told students when he visited the Managua University of Engineering in July.
“It will be an enormous help to the Nicaraguan people and for the world in general, because world trade will require it. We are sure of this.”
But environmental experts warn that construction could cause profound ecological damage by damming rivers, splitting ecosystems and moving tonnes of earth.
The company predicted that 5,100 ships would use the canal per year, each taking 30 hours to transit between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.
HKND said it could have saved 3 per cent in costs had an alternative northern route been chosen, but the southern route “minimised the social and environmental impact”, according to presentation slides.
President Daniel Ortega has said the project will create enough work to help alleviate the poverty that affects more than half the population of the Central American country.
HKND said its investments could transform Nicaragua, the second poorest nation in Latin America after Haiti, into one of the region’s richest nations.
The company promised to employ more than 50,000 people during the five years of construction of the canal.
Once built, the canal and side projects would bring more than 200,000 jobs to the nation of six million people.
Secondary construction includes two deep water ports, an international airport in the city of Rivas, four tourist resorts and an entirely new city that should become home to 130,000 residents at the Pacific end of the canal.
Panama earns about US$1 billion annually from its canal.
Additional reporting by Patrick Boehler


‘We don’t want the Chinese here’: Nicaraguan farmers protest US$50b canal 

A resident speaks during a protest march against the construction of the Interoceanic Grand Canal in Rivas on September 19. Photo: Reuters

A resident holds a sign that says "get out" during a protest march against the construction of the Interoceanic Grand Canal in Rivas. Photo: Reuters

Hong Kong-based company unveils route of Nicaragua canal to rival Panama’s

President Daniel Ortega (left) and Chinese businessman Wang Jing hold up a concession agreement for the construction of a multibillion-dollar canal at the Casa de los Pueblos in Managua. Photo: AP

Engineers have picked Route 3 of six proposed routes for the canal. Photo: SCMP Pictures.

HKND Group chairman Wang Jing listens to a question during a discussion group with students from the National Engineering University in Managua. Photo: Reuters

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World

Hong Kong company is overseeing ambitious project through Nicaragua that aims to link Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean


‘We don’t want the Chinese here’: Nicaraguan farmers protest US$50b canal

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong company is overseeing ambitious project through Nicaragua that aims to link Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean

Hong Kong company is overseeing ambitious project through Nicaragua that aims to link Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean