In Paradisiacal Nicaragua, Contemplating a Canal

Hi!: if the proposed Nicaragua canal is or is not a profitable investment, is the exclusive investor's business; unles you invest in elements such as drug smuggling, the principle of free trade and free enterprise always prevails.
The ecology elements of this proposed Nicaragua canal are the concern of nicaraguans, directly, and through their elected governments, but I'd remark that if the global warming induces a sea level rise from permanent ice's thawing at the worst pace considered by predictions, most concerns about damages to elements as the Nicaragua lake may be futile, as in the end, the Nicaragua lake could be under sea level soon.
To avoid this type of resource wasting, a good approach may be: 'starting the building by the roof', by digging as first step the pass in the mountains in Nicaragua central area, that will always be above any predicted sea Level Rise. Or not?

Let those who live in the path of the canal people but those who support the imperialist capitalist canal hate that idea vehemently because their desire for it seeks not the good of those directly affected but those who will profit from it and not have to directly feel the suffering from it - Ortega will have taken enough bribe money to drink bottled water the rest of this days...as the mafia in Italy told a protesting member he would do with the money he received who balked at dumping poisoned waste in the country side because it would poison the water of his own community. The others who support this seek Chinese power enhancement against the US and would gladly use the Nicaraguans as poisoned pawns - collateral damage.

“If you build it, they will come.” It may be a true statement for this canal project, but it is surely incomplete. Who will come? More importantly, who or what will leave?

With this canal project, so much will be lost. Native species, natural beauty, tourism draws, and traditional culture and ways of life. The value of these things cannot accurately be totaled as a dollar amount, but does it really have to be? When the potable water for much of a country is at stake, or its unique biodiversity, is there really any way at all to replace it?

And who gets to decide, anyway? Certainly, pressure for the canal is intense from international business interests. It's not their water or their wildlife or their livelihood at stake. The current government also seems to be pro-canal. But native peoples, rural Nicaraguans, and subsistence farmers all stand to lose. Is a bigger number in the bank account really worth the potential loss of fishing, recreation, tradition, self-reliance? Will it still be worth it in 100 years when jobs from the canal may have mostly dried up but the waters are still polluted and the ecosystems are still devastated?

The Nicaraguan people may be the strongest voice of opposition to the proposed canal, but I’m afraid they don’t have access to a microphone to shout it out. As with so many development projects, the short-term, profit-seeking interests of a loud and powerful few may bowl right over the interests of the many and the planet that supports us all.

For the Westerners' pleasures in ecotourism, and the "right" for them to visit pristine nature, they demand to foreclose the Nicaraguans from developing the nation. Is that fair> Life is about choices, and the Nicaraguans certainly can and should choose what benefits their people.

The right way to do the canal would be to use nukes for excavation. It could cut the cost and construction time by half. The Russians have tried it for good effects before.

Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista movement has led Nicaragua since 2007, and off and on for decades before that. Certainly these Marxists will ensure that any benefits from the canal will be redistributed to the masses.

What a wonderful, new opportunity for GRAFT in Central America. Double the expected price, half for the construction and half for greedy pockets, and it just might happen.
How many environmental treasures can be destroyed with one massive project?

What I want to know is what the president of Nicaragua gonna do with all that money the Chinese are gonna give him personally to let them pilot huge container ship through a beautiful and ecological fragile lake. Heaven only knows what is gonna ride in on the hulls of the ships, and what is gonna be thrown over board into the lake by their crews.

Thank you for a picturesque article. Now, we need a companion piece devoted to the economic and scientific ramifications of the canal. Another large canal in Central America would be extremely disruptive in so many ways.

Where is Philippe Bunau-Varilla when he's needed again? Can you imagine Bunau-Varilla carrying his postcards and stamps with the image of Mt. Monotombo around the world now?

As a professor of ecology at the UNAN-León for 31 years and a member of the National Council of Universities’ Environmental Commission for the Canal, I would like to point out a few errors in Ms. Zach´s piece.
Although Cocibolca is a source of fresh water for several communities, it does not provide drinking water for the vast majority of Nicaraguans. The lake is being contaminated by untreated human waste, and sediment entering the lake from deforested watersheds is a major problem.
In Nicaragua, environmental impact studies are done by private consultants. HKND contracted Environmental Resources Management for the EIS, to be presented in May. 80 Nicaraguan biologists, including many former students, participated in field work for the EIS. The project feasibility study is being done by McKinsey & Co.
The Canal will not affect Laguna de Perlas or the Bahía de Bluefields. The Caribbean entrance will be at Punta Aguila and has been shifted to reduce the impact on Rama-Kriol communities. The entrance to the lake was also moved to minimize impacts to wetlands near the mouth of the Río Tule.
Finally, we are working on recommendations for monitoring and mitigating the impacts on terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. These include reforestation and ecological restoration of watersheds that will supply the water for the Canal, treatment of waste, and monitoring of marine and coastal ecosystems at the entrances to the Canal on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

What this absurd book-length fairytale fails to mention is that it provides a direct one-way route for Venezuela's oil to China, and that in itself will be a heroic feat ...towards ending the horrors of capitalism!

Opposition will be natural from the same crowd that advises cow farts are destroying the earth!

My understanding is that the Chinese are involved in this canal project. The Chinese are not only among the worst polluters in this world but are very hungry for war with the west, and war with one of the worst dictatorships is just getting too close to home. Considering all the problems, it should be very important to halt this canal project, particularly where a fanatic dictatorship may be involved. We all should know that Chinese quality is among the worst in the world, so why should we think the canal work would be any different.

There is absolutely no need for this canal and many reasons that it should not be built. Perhaps the US can stop it by boycotting any ships that actually use it if it is completed.

Nicaragua is merely following the example of other wildly successful canal projects, starting in this hemisphere with the Erie Canal. It is interesting, and telling, that we are learning about the canal not in any articles written about how it will help to lift Nicaraguans out of poverty, but rather how it might wreck an intriguing vacation spot for wealthy Americans. Perhaps the Nature Conservancy might consider raising a few billion dollars and buying up the land around the lake to prevent future development, and to compensate Nicaraguans for US efforts to prevent the development of first world projects designed to increase Nicaragua's wealth.

What's the Chinese proverb? A mantis trying to block a horse drawn cart? All those American thing to hold on to the hegemony that's established by brave Americans a century ago by preventing progress and change while the world is whistling pass them.

There are no better hydraulic engineers than the Chinese for the canal, dam and diversion they build 2000 years ago are still working doing the job it was designed for.

This canal is a disaster waiting to happen and must be stopped at all costs.

I seem to remember De Lesseps first tried to dig a canal in Nicaragua, but the nearby volcanoes were considered too dangerous a threat.

The coming century's wars will be about drinkable water, not oil. Fracking, injection of waste water into the earth, overpopulation and the degradation and destruction of supplies will allow water to be sold by the drop.

Poverty is ecology. The idea that we can somehow have affluence, economic and population growth and still maintain any sense of a natural environment is a rich person's power fantasy. When people are fewer and live on less we will have a beautiful planet again. Until then more of the same despoiliation project.

It's sad to see such a biased article. 500 miles is 25 hours less pollution, each way, from each ship moving from the pacific to Atlantic. The phrase "lline the pockets of interests beyond Nicaragua" is deliberately inflammatory, saying that not burning fuel is bad because it will save (evil, rich) people money.

I'm dissapointed in the fox news style commentary.

"In Nicaragua a canal could run through it"

So? In Panama, one already does.

When the US builds it, it's OK by the NYT. If China does, the NYT bashes it (again).

What century are we in? The US should be breaking out a revised Monroe Doctrine on this project straight away. Although technically feasible and economically beneficial, without serious environmental and cultural controls this would destroy the heart of Nicaragua, something that its government seem content to allow to happen with a sizable enough pay off.

It is sad that The lust for an ephemeral pot of gold will ruin a legacy saved thru millennia. Society should have a template to stop this relentless degradation of the heritage of we have been recipient of from earlier generations.

What legacy are we leaving for the future generations if we ruin the lakes, mountains and rivers across the globe. the predatory and relentless building being foisted by mercantile societies who have rapacious intent & greed and unbalanced by no relevant checks and balances is a sad legacy for future generations.

The next environmental disaster in waiting..... when will mankind begin to exercise good stewardship of the Earth ?.....good planets are hard to find.

Nice travel piece by Elizabeth Zach and dreamy photos by Meridith Kohut. The Chinese built the Great Wall. They are now building a new country in "The Middle Kingdom", moving hundreds of thousands of small landholders and farmers from their country plots into urban blight high-rises full of boxy apartments, instant obsolete cement structures. It the Chinese are permitted (by whom?) to cut a wide and deep swath across Nicaragua and her sweet lakes and pristine shores - without any environmental studies on their proposed creation of a huge canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans - a calamity of environmental death awaits. Each ocean's unique biodiversity will be catastrophized as BP poisoned the Gulf of Mexico with their Deep Horizon oil spill - death by oil to sea and bird life in the Gulf and along America's Southern shores. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans joined in canal matrimony by the Chinese will effectively kill the biodiversity in each ocean. Nicaraguans, dreaming that their country will grow rich with tourists - another Panama miracle - are mistaken. If and when the Chinese drive a canal through their country, the huge freshwater lakes will disappear and forget about the little half-built stick stilt houses being built to attract tourists. This proposed Chinese Great Leap Forward to build and own another canal separating our two hemispheres will be the kiss of death for the country of Nicaragua. Forget about a man, a plan, a canal, Panama!

The mention of volcanos is interesting. Before the Panama Canal was built there was pressure to build the canal in Nicaragua rather than Panama but supporters of the Panama route sent Nicaraguan postage stamps with an image of a volcano to all US senators to show how dangerous a Nicaraguan canal would be and they voted for Panama.

Can poverty ridden Latin countries afford to maintain pristine environment areas for wealthy Western tourists to visit once in a lifetime?

Nicaragua -- like neighboring Central America-- is environmentally rich but one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. The construction of a trans oceanic canal represents the only chance for economic-social development.

Of course, the new canal does not necessarily represent prosperity for the poor if corrupt politicians and foreign and local business associates appropriate all the wealth generated. Panama is a good case study.

The US built the Panama Canal with profound negative environmental impacts in the ecosystem. The wealth generated stayed with American interests and corrupt Panamanian politicians. The Panamanian population still remains poor and illiterate.

This seems like an environment disaster waiting to happen. Taking ships from the Pacific through a lake to Atlantic will pollute all three areas with non-native species and likely leave the lake unusable as a water source. This seems ill-conceived and costly, given the expansion and relative proximity of the Panama Canal and the huge expenses associated with the project. To entrust a fragile ecosystem to someone from China (for we all know well how the Chinese have protected the environment seems absurd.

It's ironic that Lake Nicaragua is home to a species of freshwater shark, thought to have travelled up the San Juan River, to be trapped in the lake. Perhaps they've been patiently waiting for the canal.

I live part year in El Salvador, and have traveled over the area from Nicaragua north to Yucatán and Chiapas, I am a spanish speaker and live among my many salvadoran friends in the western part of the country. I travel easily by public transportation or by private car and by foot.
The canal project is a fraud that is not wanted by the people and will collapse after the chinese capitalist behind this potential disaster to the ecology and culture will disappear with investor money as is so often the case.
It is superfluous and would ruin the most "tranquilo" country of the four spanush speaking northern countries.
By the way El Salvador is unfairly misrepresented by "drive- by " reports conformed to a preset agenda of violence. I travel freely and easily among kind, generous, hard- working people and have yet encounter the slightest expresion of ill-will and have yet to see a US foreign service worker in my many monthes among the people.

The Western Hemisphere's second poorest country, for decades without Western or Eastern bloc assistance to escape this plight. This is not a debate about destroying the unquestioned natural beauty of Nicaragua, It should be a debate about what other development paths are available to lift Nicaragua out of poverty.

How can we work with Nicaragua, assuming they want help, to become more economically successful without sacrificing it's natural beauty? To think about the trade off of the fresh water and beauty of Lake Nicaragua hurts my head. The Chinese can't see across Beijing because of pollution and they surely could care less about the ecological damage to Nicaragua. A hundred years from now Nicaragua can still be a paradise....or not.

Another canal is not needed by anyone except those who will profit and once again that breakdown is about the usual 1 in 1,000,000

I just returned from almost 3 weeks in Nicaragua, staying with a local family in Granada, speaking with everyone I could about the canal. Almost no one I spoke with is in favor of the canal; many feel despair but helpless. The Ortega government is not conducting opinion polls. At an international gathering of poets in Granada, during an impassioned session about whether a petition against the canal should be introduced, there were those who argued that raising the topic imperiled the existence of the entire conference. The fears about the canal are many: the environmental degradation will be enormous not just for Nicaragua's fresh water supply and for its abundant wildlife but for large swatches of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; the canal with be built entirely by Chinese labor, possibly hundreds of thousands of workers, transported to a tiny, poor country of six million people with no infrastructure to house, feed, or provide services for such an influx; the agreement made between the Ortega government and the Chinese financier will leave Nicaraguans indebted to foreign interests for generations to come. Those I spoke with are hoping that the rest of the world will begin to take an interest in this looming disaster before it is too late.
Hilary Cohen

I read your article on Nicaragua and the potential destruction of the existing beauty of Lake Nicaragua and the surrounding areas for thee building of a huge canal upsetting. The accurate assessment of the horrible irrapariable environmental damage is bad enough. What was sadly left out of this report is the brutal displacement of homes and settlements of the poorest of the poor indigent Nicaraguans without any form of compensation whatsoever. Where are they to go??? What help is the government giving them as they are forced from their homes, farms and meager livelihood?

There are always those who would wish that dirt poor third-world countries would stay that way so that we, the wealthy foreigners, can come and enjoy being treated like royalty in exchange for a few dollars where the cost of living is so low.

All the namby-pamby nattering about "the ecology" is a front for that sentiment.

Raising half-a million human beings out of grinding poverty -- offering real jobs that contribute to something real (not just "fair-traded" knic-knacs) and the educational opportunities that will come from the need for trained and competent modern workers will continue to be needed in ever greater numbers -- is not something to scoff at.

Hoping to keep these people in their desperate state is a great evil - not offset by by the pragmatic compromises necessary to build the canal. I suspect that 90% of the opposition to the canal project comes from outsiders who are primarily responsible for stirring up the small local valid concerns (which should be answered) into a false "grass-roots opposition movement", the funding of which is in all probability almost 100% foreign, outsider money.

This article is a fine example of that truth. Along with the one commenter below that "loves" the people, particularly, I suspect, her cook, maids and groundskeepers.

The Chinese have a reputation for being anything but warm and fuzzy. In several countries there is growing concern that they are mostly engaged in bribing officials and grabbing resources. Where they have been involved in construction projects they are known for not hiring locals, but rather brining in Chinese workers who live in isolated enclaves and don't interact with the native people. It would be interesting to see how this behavior will play out in friendly vibrant Central America.

There seems to be no reference to the potential for much greater environmental impact in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, as well as in the Atlantic Ocean. The present configuration of the Panama Canal prevents the mixing of Atlantic and Pacific lifeforms, but a sea level canal through Nicaragua could proffer a dangerous mixing of species that would disrupt ecosystems which have taken eons to evolve.

The building of the Nicaragua Canal should require the approval by every nation which borders on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Nicaragua I visited in 1996 was anything but paradisaical. In fact, I have never seen so much environmental degradation and destruction anywhere in the Americas...before or since. But I'm sure there are still beautiful isolated areas along the Atlantic Coast...that will soon be destroyed.

The photography is amazing here (as usual) in the travel section.
Thank you :)

The fact that the statement "Ometepe sits amid the largest freshwater lake in Central America, and that is one reason agua (water) is part of the country’s name" was allowed to remain in this article unfortunately puts the author into the category of the well-intentioned but fundamentally ignorant writers about this country, which was my home in the 1980s. Just a basic fact check: the name "Nicaragua" derives from the ethnonym "Nicarao" which has been used to describe the pre-columbian indigenous people who lived along the narrow coastal strip called the isthmus of Rivas, between the western shore of the big lake and the Pacific. Ignorant statement #2: "the native Náhuatl who lived around the lake anointed it Cocibolca, or “sweet sea.”" The Nicarao spoke a language related to Nahuatl, , but "Nahuatl" is an inaccurate identification of them as a Native people. Moreover,the Nicarao lived only on the western shore of the lake. On the eastern shore, very different peoples lived, who have been variously identified as "Chontal." The writer's sentiments are well-intentioned, I am certain, and travel writers are (certainly) not scholars, but simple facts can still be part of such an article.

Having traveled to both the Pacific and Bahama-sde of Nica, its quite disturbing to see how the Nicaraguan people and gov't are welcoming this project without the full grasp of the detrimental effect to their eco-system.
I've travelled all over the world and Nicaragua is truly one of the most beautiful, raw and friendly places I've ever been to. The Chinese govt is one of the most destructive governments in the world. As a fellow Chinese, I can't imagine how they will be "building" this massive canal without hurting the environment and many deaths, probably from both the Chinese and locals. I can only hold my breath and pray that if they do move forward with this fully, it won't harm the people or country.

My husband and I are expats and have lived on Ometepe Island for 10 years. I just wanted to say thank you for your detailed article and how the proposed canal may affect our UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Ometepe Island is indeed a unique and ecologically diverse place.
Unfortunately, although we are legal residents of Nicaragua, we cannot speak out publicly against the canal for fear of government reprisals, of which there have been many. I have to be very careful when writing my blog articles about the canal. Plus, I am a guest in this beautiful country, so it is not my place to "make waves." So, thank you so much for spreading the word.
I love Ometepe Island and especially the people. I just can't wrap my head around the need for secrecy and the fear instilled in the people if they are involved in protesting, recording, or publicly renouncing the canal.

I am a US Coast Guard Licensed Captain and Chief Engineer.
My last trip across the Atlantic Ocean was September 2015.
Having sailed Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans all over the world, I have seen what ships can do to the Waters.
The Nicaragua Country and Waters will be Contaminated and Destroyed by this Project.
All for Money.
Say "NO", yourself.
Everyone say "NO".

Rampant ecotourism is in need of an environmental study. Nonetheless, Nica heads my bucket list.

Somehow "A man, a plan, a canal, Nicaragua" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

This reads more like a travel piece than an article about the canal itself. From a 'boots on the ground' perspective (I live in Granada half of each of the last seven years) I would say you missed a few key points.
The canal deal has been shrouded in mystery since the beginning with little information made available to the general public. Aside from the usual hyperbolic promises from the government access to specific details (including the exact route) remains elusive. Bitter, and at times violent protests have erupted along one proposed canal route and at least one foreign journalist had her equipment seized was deported after photographing a protest. The forced relocation of thousands of poor people is still a highly contentious issue.
Generally, local opinion regarding the canal seems largely indifferent since many believe that it will never be built and if it is in fact built it will be constructed by an entirely Chinese workforce.
Either way, the 'pristine' lake resembles an open sewer along much of its northern border at this time. Swathes of malodorous beachfront are festooned with plastic bags and other bits of brightly colored garbage.
Nicaragua has enormous natural beauty and great potential but remains paradoxical as well as paradisiacal at its very core.