How Nicaragua and HKND plan to mitigate environmental impact of their canal

CLICK TO ENLARGE. The latest known proposed route for the Nicaragua Interoceanic Canal, also known as the Nicaragua Grand Canal, as described by the AFP news agency in July of 2014. The proposed Pacific entrance to the canal is the mouth of the Brito River. Also note the three sets of locks in yellow. (PD)

November 28th, 2014 (NN) - On Nov. 20, the HKND Company and its subcontractors presented the results of their feasibility studies as well as a report on the progress of the yet-to-be completed environmental impact study. After announcing a series of modifications to the route to minimize the environmental impact, Kwok Wai Pang, deputy director of construction for HKND, said, “We are ready to begin construction on the canal.”  He explained that the first task would be the building of a port at the mouth of the Brito River on the Pacific side of the country and work there could begin as early as Dec. 22 of this year.

Bill Wild, principal advisor for HKND, said that in December the company would present to the government a report on the progress of the environmental and social impact studies. David Blaha of the British company in charge of the environmental study, Environmental Resource Management (ERM), said that the final study would not be ready until March or April of 2015 because researchers are still working on predicting the magnitude of the impact and alternatives to mitigate it.

Several environmental protection measures were announced at the meeting, however. Kwok Wai Pang said that the site of the port at Brito was moved and a bridge would be built to preserve the mangrove swamps at the mouth of the Brito River and a stone barrier would protect them from too much salt water. Explosives would not be used in the dredging of the shipping channel in Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) but rather a special technique for the extraction of sediments.  The planned two locks on the Pacific side would be built seven kilometers from the shore rather than two kilometers to avoid damage from possible tsunamis. On the Caribbean side, it was announced that the canal will not cross the San Miguelito Wetlands System, one of eight Ramsar sites in the country, as previously announced. Blaha, of ERM, said that authorities from the Ramsar Convention had been invited to meet with the government next year to consult about possible impacts on the wetlands. ERM has identified seven areas of great biological importance: the coastline at Brito, the island of Ometepe, the Archipelago of Solentiname, the San Miguelito wetlands, the El Tule forests, the Punta Gorda River watershed, and Monkey Point and its nearby keys.

Blaha summarized by saying that the canal route crosses a zone rich in biodiversity, with indigenous peoples and protected areas of international importance. He explained further, “We have seen a migration of farmers and ranchers [into the areas] and thus the population that lives there is larger than before. The most sensitive subject that we heard about in our meetings was about the acquiring of land and about expropriations.” He said that HKND is committed to achieving a net positive impact, not only mitigating the environmental effects of the canal but assuring that things are actually better than they were before, both environmentally and socially. “Some of the key elements for achieving this would be preventing further [farming and ranching] penetration in the Indio Maiz Reserve and the protected areas of the Punta Gorda Reserve, and maintaining what remains of the Meso-American Corridor which unites the countries of Central America and is important for the protection of the jaguar and other mammals,” he said. He said that there was a commitment now to patrol the boundaries of the Indio Maiz Reserve and to restore protected areas of the Punta Gorda Reserve. The environmental study counted 1,400 species of plants and 410 species of birds, of which 80 were migratory.

The archeological richness of the zone where the canal will pass was also confirmed. ERM found 213 archeological sites dating from 500 BCE to 1519 CE, including 13,000 fragments of pre-Columbian ceramics and 2,000 stone tools and weapons. What will happen to those sites was not specified.

HKND representatives said that two bridges would be built on the Pacific side of the country: one over the locks for operational purposes and another for the Pan American Highway similar to the Las Americas Bridge that crosses the Panama Canal. Koen Thomas of SBE, a Belgian hydraulic engineering company, said that the three locks would be 525 meters long, 80 meters wide and 25 meters deep. The system would include nine separate pools which would permit a 70% saving in water usage.

Paul Oquist, public policy advisor to President Daniel Ortega, said he could not give any details about the financing for the canal but he said that there “would be financing from the whole world; a rainbow of financing which could be seen in the feasibility studies from companies from the United States, Great Britain, China, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Australia.” Telemaco Talavera, spokesperson of the Canal Commission, said that financing was assured and will be revealed in a special announcement before construction begins on Dec. 22. He said that the construction of the canal would generate an estimated 50,000 jobs.

Reactions came from all sides, negative and positive. Victor Campos, deputy director of the Humboldt Center, said that the sheer numbers of workers in the canal construction zone will increase the likelihood that colonization of protected areas will increase even if patrols are put in place and barriers set up. He noted that while HKND has promised not to use explosives in the dredging of the Lake, “There is volcanic material [on the bottom of the Lake], such as basalt, which is hard, and if explosives are required, without a doubt, they will take drastic measures.” Salvador Montenegro of the Center for Hydro Resource Research (CIRA) said the studies released so far have not considered that 38,000 tons of mud and sediment flow into Lake Nicaragua each day. “And neither have they made reference to studies of fault lines in the lake and of the quakes that are measured there daily,” he said.

Maria Luisa Acosta, director of the Center for Legal Assistance for Indigenous Peoples (CALPI), said that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires that no relocation of indigenous peoples “shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned” and this did not happen in the case the indigenous of the Department of Rivas or the South Caribbean Autonomous Region. Santiago Thomas, president of the Rama Kriol community said that Caribbean Coast indigenous leaders planned to meet on Nov. 24 to decide what measures to take after hearing the news released on Nov. 20.

At a citizens’ forum in Masaya, Azahalea Solis of the Autonomous Women’s Movement (MAM) called the prediction that there would be many new jobs created “an enormous lie.” She added, “The fact that they have not announced the investors in the canal makes you think that either they want to launder ill-gotten funds or there are geopolitical interests involved, or both. But of one thing you can be sure, the interests of Nicaragua are not involved.”

Meanwhile, representatives of two of Nicaragua’s principal trade union confederations, the Jose Benito Escobar Sandinista Workers Central (CST-JBE) and the Sandinista Workers Central (CST), said that they were in the process of certifying construction laborers for work on the canal. Roberto Gonzalez of the CST said that next week there would be a meeting with HKND representatives to agree on the inclusion of other trade union confederations, including the CUS, the CGTI, and the CUSA, in a roundtable to discuss the qualifications that will be needed. He added, “We are making efforts to reach more than 15,000 workers for the beginning of the first stage of the project.”

Benjamin Lanzas, president of the Nicaraguan Chamber of Construction, said that there are a number of Nicaraguan construction companies that have the experience necessary to take over the preparatory work that, according to HKND representatives, will consist of building access roads and movement of heavy machinery.  In his Nov. 20^th presentation, Bill Wild said that HKND was about to close bids for Chinese companies and open bids for local companies. Mario Zelaya of D’Guerreros Ingenieros said that his company will be submitting a bid for the building of access roads. On Nov. 24, government spokesperson Rosario Murillo said that contracts had been awarded to five Nicaraguan companies for access road construction.

The editorial in El Nuevo Diario on Nov. 24 reiterated the continued environmental concerns about the canal but summarized: “Just as, according to the opinion polls, a majority of Nicaraguans consider it positive that Nicaragua will build an interoceanic canal, we believe that this country is facing a historic opportunity and we hope that we will take advantage of it and make it a reality.”

(c) Alliance For Global Justice / Nicaragua Network.  All rights reserved.  Republished here with permission.