Monday, December 22, 2014

Start of construction work on the Nicaragua Canal – tagesschau.de

Start of construction work on the Nicaragua Canal – tagesschau.de

Date: 22/12/2014 21:33 clock

In Nicaragua, construction has started on the channel between the Atlantic and Pacific. Around 32 billion euro plan to Chinese investors for it. Nicaragua’s government has approved the gigantic project in record time. You will thereby reduce poverty in the country. But there is resistance – mainly because of environmental concerns and fear of expropriation

By Martin Polansky, ARD Studio Mexico

Bluefields is the largest city on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. It is located in a remote area, no road leads over here. Bluefields is poor, the low houses are weathered tropical, people living from fishing, some trade and tourism. But south of Bluefields is to create a project for the future. The Nicaragua Canal

“Anything that helps our country, I like this create jobs for young people There is.. almost nothing, “said one resident. But another contradicts him: “I do not think we will benefit The government has simply decided, without asking the people That they should but…”

There is a gigantic project, more than three times as long as the Panama Canal. Construction costs were around 32 billion euros. This corresponds to nearly four times the annual economic output of Nicaragua.



Opaque investors

The Chinese HKND Group will raise the money and the channel in build a record time of five years. Nicaragua’s leftist government of the Sandinistas gave it the license without competition, without long debates. Environmental studies are not yet available. Only the hope of money and a lot of jobs. The Chinese are now pace. “The channel is a centuries-old dream meet,” says Zhu Xiaoya of the HKND Group. “It should be a monument for the welfare of the people.”

However, the flowery words can not hide the fact that little is known about the HKND Group and its chief Wang Jing. Many assume that the Chinese government is behind the project. Because Beijing is interested in the raw materials of Latin America and the trade with the United States. Extensive control over a new waterway to have north of the Panama Canal, should be geopolitically interesting.

The poor Nicaragua give off its sovereignty to the powerful China, some criticize the country. But the Sandinista government rejects. President Daniel Ortega has become politically largely in the revolutionary struggle for socialism and against the United States. The likely impact on his views on China. Paul H. Oquist coordinates the channel planning for the president: “The investment of 32 billion euros will guarantee our second independence The Sandinistas have brought the country’s real political independence, but we are still very poor and economically dependent on the United States..”



concerns of environmentalists

Environmentalists warn of the consequences – especially for the Lago de Nicaragua , the largest lake in Central America. Container giants are once passed through here. However, that would require a channel channel to be dredged – to the dismay of environmentalists as David Quintana:

“The dredging will destroy the life of the lake virtually We also fear a salinity and flooding we sell.. our most important water reservoir of the investors Wang Jing. “

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containers and their ships – the biggest their time

tagesschau.de, the largest ships of their time ago.

The triumph of Standardized container transport began in the 1960s Jahren.1966 dropped the “Fairland” the first container ship in Bremerhaven. Today, the containers are handled there on one of the longest piers port in Europe.

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