Klaus Mommsen
The Panama Canal is to be rivalled; some 600 km to the northwest, Nicaragua also wants to build a canal across the Central American isthmus. The idea for this project is by no means new. The first proposals were made back in Spanish colonial times, when in 1825 the government of the then "Federative Republic of Central America" had the first preliminary studies carried out. Gradually, several routes between 225 and 270 kilometres long were considered.
In the end, a route from Greytown parallel to the border with Costa Rica was apparently favoured, initially around 60 km to the west. The canal was then to flow into the Rio San Juan and follow it to Fort San Carlos in Lake Nicaragua. Previously, locks would have to lift ships 32 metres up to the level of the lake. A large part of the passage was to be travelled on the 26 m deep lake. From the western shore of the lake, an approximately 35 km wide land crossing was then planned from San Jorge to the Pacific coast at Brito - locks would of course also be necessary here.
USS Georgia with a cruiser 2020 in the Strait of Hormuz
However, this proposal was in competition with two other routes outside Nicaraguathrough Mexico (Isthmus of Tehuantepec) and through Panama. When the US government in Nicaragua Panama won the race because the USA saw problems with poverty and political instability as well as risks from nearby volcanoes and also suspected that Great Britain (British Honduras) had too much political influence. French engineers had already started building the Panama Canal; in 1904, the USA bought the project (for only 40 million dollars) and completed it. Since 1914, the Panama Canal has been the unrivalled shipping route across Latin America. A system of locks lifts ships 26 metres high for the 77 km long passage across the artificially dammed Gatun Lake and lowers them back down to sea level on the other side.
Although the Panama Canal is only about a third as long as the proposed Nicaragua Canalbut the north-west alternative was never off the table. New ideas for its construction were constantly being considered. At times, there were even thoughts of shortening the route by around 50 kilometres by means of nuclear blasting across mountain ranges. However, these ideas quickly disappeared from the agenda.
In 1993, the idea of a small variant suitable only for special cargo barges was born, but this also disappeared into the drawers for 60 years. In 1999, parliament created the legal basis for the realisation of this small variant: the "Eco Canal" was to connect Lake Nicaragua with the Caribbean coast, but not continue from the lake to the Pacific coast. This gap was to be closed by railway and pipelines. However, the "Eco Canal" would be completely unsuitable as an international alternative to the Panama Canal.
By 2004 at the latest, there was once again talk of a canal running across the entire isthmus. In order to create real competition for the Panama Canal, this was to be able to accommodate 250,000-ts ships. In the Panama Canal, the 320 x 33.5 metre locks limit the ship size to "Panamax" (around 65,000 tonnes), even after an expansion carried out by the USA in 1939 (for the passage of large battleships). A new, larger lock is planned, but even after its completion, supertankers, for example, will not be able to use the Panama Canal.
The idea has increasingly developed into a real project in recent years. In 2010, South Korean companies were awarded contracts for the infrastructural expansion of the probable port of departure on the Caribbean coast. On 13 June 2013, the National Assembly gave the green light for the construction of the Nicaragua Canal. The exact route is now to be determined in a study and then the required land "brought into state ownership"; actual construction work is to begin in 2015, and the first ships are to sail on the new waterway in as little as eleven years.
The costs for the construction of the Nicaragua Canal are estimated at around 30 billion euros. Now Nicaragua the poorest country in Central America. With a national budget of just 1.5 billion euros (2012), it is certainly not possible to finance such a project - but a financially strong partner has been brought on board. The contract for the construction and operation (50 years) of the canal is to be awarded to the Hong Kong-based Chinese "HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co. Ltd".
Given the financial scope of the project, the fact that the company was apparently founded specifically for this project suggests substantial support from Beijing, and behind such support, not only purely economic but above all massive political interests can be assumed. The USA also views the Nicaragua Canal project with great reservations. It is certainly not without good reason that they fear a new geostrategic "bridgehead" for China with considerable foreign, economic and security policy implications - and now right on their doorstep.
Klaus Mommsen: Project "Nicaragua Canal". Security policy implications on the US doorstep, in: MarineForum, Issue 9 2013, p.36.
MarineForum Online
See also
A possible Nicaragua Canal to compete with the Panama Canal?
http://sicherheitvernetzt.de/
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Concerns about the project are growing, especially with regard to the consequences, as reported here: http://maritime-executive.com/article/mega-canal-mega-mistake.
It can be assumed that the financiers pay little attention to the expected consequences for the population, the economy and the natural environment of Nicaragua. Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that the entire project will be cancelled for technical or financial reasons and Nicaraugua will be left with a huge ruined building,
thinks to himself
the sailor
The bad news doesn't stop: "Experts doubt the Nicaragua Canal. Price slide jeopardises financing" (http://n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Experten-zweifeln-am-Nicaragua-Kanal-article16702786.html). I wonder if that will work out,
wonders
the sailor
The USA could actually benefit from such a canal if it used it as a transport route between the east and west coasts. However, this is prevented by a law that prohibits goods from being shipped between US ports by sea. This law is intended to protect rail and lorry companies.
Apart from that, such a Chinese presence in the region is of course a challenge. The fact that there are some Latin American countries that are permanently at loggerheads with the USA has causes on both sides. Other regions of the world are still a long way from the kind of behaviour that is cultivated in the EU,
thinks
the sailor
This blog post shows the inextricable link between trade and security on the one hand and the increasing geostrategic role of the Chinese on the other - in the event that the Chinese leadership is actually behind the financing. Otherwise, it could be a charlatan, as Bonn experienced with the WCC construction project. The Nicaragua Canal project will have to be followed closely.