Protests, arrests as work starts on Nicaragua Canal

THE NICARAGUAN government and the Chinese HKND Group, the project concessionaire for the Nicaraguan Grand Canal formally opened the construction of the waterway on Monday, December 22 .
Protests from farmers and environmentalist which began in September continued during simultaneous opening ceremonies for the $50 billion project in Managua and in the southern department of Rivas, on the Pacific, the country’s president, Daniel Ortega,and Chinese businessman Wang Jing, owner of HKND Group, spearheaded the cermonies.
A spokesman for the Grand Canal Telemachus Talavera.said workbegins   with the construction of access roads to excavation sites.
Residents of the communities that will be affected by the planned route with the expropriation of their lands have maintained sporadic clashes on public roads in at least two communities, while the government has sent military and riot police to the and detained, activists against the project.
The start of construction of the canal has also triggered alarms with environmentalists, due to the absence of an environmental impact study and the fear that the work could cause serious harm to the Great Lake, the largest freshwater reservoir in Central America.The HKND Group has said that environmental impact studies of the work will be ready by March or April next year.
The 278 kilometers waterway will be between 230 and 520 meters wide and 30 meters deep, including a stretch of 105 kilometers in the Great Lake.
The concession for the construction of the Grand Canal was awarded to HKND Group by the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, in June 2013.
Besides digging the canal, HKND Group plans to build roads, two ports, an artificial lake, an airport, a resort, a free trade zone, steel mills and concrete plants.