Between Oceans

The Nicaraguan government has plans to build a canal linking the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean.  

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It would stretch 278km (173 miles) from Punta Gorda on the Caribbean through Lake Nicaragua to the mouth of the river Brito on the Pacific.

Environmentalists have expressed concerns about the plans to build a canal to rival that of Panama.

Nicaragua says it will break ground on the $40bn (£23bn) project this year.

Engineers for the Hong Kong-based HKND Group said the canal would be between 230m and 520m wide and 27.6m deep.

HKND Group is a Chinese-backed infrastructure development firm incorporated in the Cayman Island. In partnership with the government of Nicaragua, the group is focused on the development of the Nicaragua Canal and Development Project – a major infrastructure project with the potential to make Nicaragua a pivotal hub for transportation and logistics. 

HKND is fully owned by Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment, which traces back to Wang Jing, the president of Xinwei Telecom Enterprise Group, a telco group with interests in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua said it had chosen the route so it would avoid areas of great biodiversity, indigenous territories and environmentally protected lands.

But environmentalists are still concerned about the effects it may have on Lake Nicaragua, Central America's largest lake and an important source of fresh water.

The commission in charge of building the canal said environmental and social impact studies would be carried out on the route and changes would still be possible.

It said it expected construction to begin in December and to be finished within five years.

Sceptics point out that it took the United States 10 years to build the Panama Canal, which at 77km is less than a third of the length of the planned canal through Nicaragua.

But Nicaragua insists engineering and construction techniques have moved on since 1914, when the Panama Canal was completed.

Nicaraguan officials say their waterway would "complement" the Panama Canal rather than be in direct rivalry to it.

They say a bigger canal is essential to allow for increased global trade and ever larger tankers, many of which are too large for the Panama Canal, even after its current expansion.

They are confident the project will help lift the country out of poverty.