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HKND Group: Nicaragua Grand Canal win 78pc local public approval

THE Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Company (HKND) said that a recent opinion survey has shown that 78 per cent of Nicaraguans support the US$50 billion project to build a 172-mile shipping waterway through the country, Bloomberg reports.

The company also said that it is open to the possibility of changing the planned route to avoid the small town of El Tulle, whose residents are fiercely opposing the construction of the Nicaragua Grand Canal.

The new route would push the canal some 500 metres from the centre of the town, and would cost additional US$700 million, the company said.

Nicaragua Grand Canal is a proposed 172-mile waterway, 230 to 520 metres wide and 27.6 metres deep, making it longer, wider and deeper than the 51-mile Panama Canal to the south.

The project is expected to be completed in five years with the canal becoming operational by 2020. According to HKDN Group, the canal project will include six sub projects including locks, two ports, a free trade zone, holiday resorts, an international airport and several roads.

In addition, there will be construction of a power station, cement factory, steel factory and other related facilities.

HKND Group is pressing on with the project, and has recently contracted the international geological and resource consultancy CSA Global of Australia to conduct an aerial geological survey of the canal route and Lake Nicaragua shore line.

The survey will cover a 10 kilometre-wide area along the proposed canal route alignment connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific and the two kilometre-wide circumference of Lake Nicaragua, with a planned commencement in September 2015 and completion by March 2016.

"The survey is a major step in the construction development process and supports pre-works planning, design and engineering for the canal and infrastructure," said HKND Group senior advisor John Murray.

In June a Florida International University (FIN) unit, the Southeast Environmental Research Centre (SERC), cast doubt on the validity of the eco-assessment from Environmental Resources Management (ERM), commissioned by HKND which gave its blessing to the project.

In a press release the Miami-based SERC said: "A group of international scientists have released their findings about a proposed trans-isthmus shipping canal in Nicaragua, raising concerns about environmental impact and lack of information."

But the names of the scientists were not mentioned in the press release or attached to the unsigned report itself. The only name included was that of FIN biology professor, Todd Crowl, the SERC director, who rallied the "scientists".

The only other names included were attached to a slew of cryptic footnotes to back up points made in the report.

No findings other than expressions of the dissatisfaction with the quality of the work done by the ERM consultancy on behalf of the HKND canal builders were presented. The Nicaraguan government has approved the ERM study and says the project is good to go.