Nicaragua riding roughshod over canal opponents - lawyer

Preparatory construction work on Nicaragua's US$40bn inter-oceanic shipping canal due to start this month cannot get underway because land has not been expropriated and environmental impact studies are still pending, Mónica López Baltodano, director of NGO Popol Na, told BNamericas.

Paul Oquist, a close adviser to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, has said that work on a wharf and roads was scheduled to start by December 24.

Citizen groups that oppose the canal project were due to hold a protest march on Wednesday in capital Managua against Chinese firm HKND, which was awarded the concession to build the canal and operate it for 50 years.

López, a lawyer who is also part of Grupo Cocibolca, a group composed of social and scientific organizations fighting the project, said, "Under Nicaraguan law, environmental impact studies are required before permission for a project to begin is granted. Consequently, if work does start, this would constitute yet another project irregularity."

She also pointed out that land required for the initiative had not been acquired by the developers.

The members of Grupo Cocibolca have asked the government not to proceed with construction work as scheduled and to present environmental impact studies, consult with communities that would be affected and publish the project's economic feasibility studies.

The group was still waiting for an answer to its requests.

Grupo Cocibolca members claim that land expropriations could affect more than 30,000 people and that the project, given the canal zone footprint, could affect the lives of 100,000 people.

López said that technical and scientific studies have been submitted which reveal some of the environmental impacts of the canal, which would be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Latin America.

Nature reserves, according to the studies, would be affected and access to water resources reduced. The canal would also undo the work of the Mesoamerican biological corridor project, a sustainable development initiative which Mexico and Central America have collaborated on for years.

"The project would not only change the geography of Nicaragua, but also affect one of the largest reserves of fresh water in Central America, the Cocibolca lake, which the route of the canal would pass through. But, to date, the government has not valued scientific opinion," López said.

Opponents have appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and social and indigenous organizations have filed legal complaints with the local authorities with the aim of taking their case to the IACHR.

"We're launching a global appeal that companies do not provide services for the project, which is violating human rights," López said.

She added that the project was not the answer to Nicaragua's economic problems.

Her opinion is shared by local think-tank Funides, which said that the canal could have a detrimental effect on other industries in the country.