BobInget wrote:I've only been in Nicaragua a few weeks, half the time, goofing off on the beach. From a tiny sample of Nica's interviewed, most folks here seem
in favor of the canal project. Officials claim 87% approval.
The problem, like with Keystone XL, no one is asking poor substance farmers whose land will be 'taken'.
These folks, I'm told by folks on the Left (Sandinistas) and Right, (former contras) are prepared to fight to hold on to their lands.
Considerable environmental damage will undoubtedly occur to Lake Nicaragua, the largest fresh water containment in Central America.
Salt water intrusion along the canal's path ruins farmland.
I hope financing falls through. If not, there will be yet another civil war.
Unless they are building it as a sea level canal saltwater intrusion should not be much of a problem. The canal is supposed to be 90 feet deep to handle the largest freighters. Lake Nicaragua surface is 107 feet above sea level and its deepest point is 22 feet above sea level. If the Canal is sea level all the way Lake Nicaragua will drain completely into the sea. I suspect they will have lock structures on both ends and the canal will be filled with fresh water from the lake and rivers that feed into the lake. Based on the geography probably three locks on each end with the Pacific locks all close together and the Atlantic locks at the lake shore, sea shore and somewhere in the middle.
With modern equipment making a sea level canal would not be all that difficult, but it would drain a lot of fresh water sources into the sea. As is the canal route across the lake bottom will require a lot of dredging to make the whole distance 90 feet deep. I wonder what they plan to do with all that rich silt they will have to be dredging from the lake?
