Nicaragua Canal impact study called into question
San Francisco: Costa Rica’s president has called on neighbouring nation Nicaragua for answers as to the likely environmental damage of the proposed Nicaraguan Canal, a project led by Chinese businessman Wang Jing.
President Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera on Tuesday was particularly concerned with how Nicaragua planned to prevent the sedimentation of the San Juan River, a likely effect of dredging Lake Nicaragua
Nicaragua would like the proposed 172-mile canal to be operational by around 2020.
The canal project, rumoured to be worth around $50bn, would be run by Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co Ltd (HKND) which is controlled by Chinese telecom mogul Wang.
Solis Rivera’s concerns came a day after it was revealed by the website Circle of Blue that a panel of independent scientists had found numerous flaws in May’s environmental impact study of the canal plan. That study, by British consultants ERM, was slammed by the scientists who called parts of the impact study “indefensible,” “implausible,” and “wrong.” The study had been commissioned by Wang’s HKND company.