|
The News:
On October 3 2006, Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos formally announced ambitious plans to construct the “Grand Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal” through their country to connect Pacific and Atlantic.
Introduction:
The age old idea was revived ten years ago by a consortium of European, Japanese and North American construction giants. They carried out feasibility studies. The idea is not new. It is in the air since when the Spanish rulers and traders dreamt for the first time of having a short route to Far East and Pacific through the isthmus of the Americas.
Colonial powers’ trade and imperial interests always had a special place to these sea canal short cuts. Success of Suez Canal only helped their dreams of an American Canal. So, naturally when anyone decided to give it a try, they would survey for different alignments. And Nicaragua was also considered way back in 1849 at the height of Californian Gold Rush. The Americans were desperate to cross the isthmus to reach the west with men and goods, instead of trudging past the treacherous western desert lands.
American realtors invested heavily in lands in Nicaragua in anticipation of a canal be built through it. Reportedly, the US even paid Nicaragua $3 million but the Panama Canal deal was clinched and the Nicaragua canal never took off.
What it Takes and Gives?
The inputs and time span are certainly huge, given Nicaragua Canal is going to be longer than Panama Canal. It would cost some estimated $20 billion over a minimum of 10 years. But as the Murphy’s Law says these are things that can go wrong and indeed they may go wrong. On technical side, it involves construction of 270 km canal with a draft of m and a series of giagantic locks with up to 32 metres lift to join Lago Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua). The canal alignment mostly follows the San Juan River and also have to negotiate Mt Momotombo, an active volcano!
As if these technical and traffic difficulties are not enough, there are serious ecological concerns. It is feared that apart from destroying large areas of forest, it would also open up the interior of the most forested country in Central America to exploitation. Another certainty is the destruction of beautiful coral reefs and fishing grounds by the deep-water ports, in addition to threat to the breeding grounds of sea turtles, potential risk of pollution by oil spills and waste discharges.
The areas that would immensely benefit from it are east and west coasts of North America; a day or 800 km will be saved by Nicaragua Canal against Panama Canal. On the other hand, for Europe, Brazil large-scale sea traffic involving large ships heading for Pacific like China, Japan and South Korea would benefit. Now, the large ships are taking the Magillan Straights route as Panama canal is too narrow accommodate them. At present, Panama Canal is handling ships up to 79,000 ton only. Even after the planned upgrade, it could handle ships up to 120,000 ton only against the planned 250,000 ton for Nicaragua Canal.
It is small wonder that the formal announcement was greeted with trepidation by Panama. At a time when the Panama Canal Authority is planning a massive $5 billion project to widen its canal, Nicaragua canal could threaten its main source of income. There is speculation on whether there would be enough traffic to justify this investment. However, President Bolanos alleys these fears stating there was room for two major canals! He asserts that for every 100 ships headed for Americas, only seven were using the Panama Canal and if a Nicaraguan canal could be built much of this traffic can be attracted, resulting in great economic benefits. Officials at Panama Canal Authority maintain that there would not be enough traffic to support both a widened Panama Canal and a Nicaraguan canal.
|
