The Nicaragua Canal Fiasco
The consortium in charge — the Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development Group (HKND), led by Beijing-based telecom billionaire Wang Jing — has little experience with these sorts of projects and was awarded the contract in a secret deal with Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. No environmental reviews were conducted beforehand, even though the project runs through Lake Nicaragua, the country’s main source of drinking water.
Besides displacing thousands of families who will lose their land and sustenance, biologists have pointed out that the canal’s route will slice through a variety of nature reserves that are homes to some 22 species vulnerable to extinction, from tapirs to jaguars to turtles. The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation warned that the canal could impede the movement of key species.
