Nicaragua gives Chinese firm contract to build alternative to Panama Canal

© Khunaspix Dreamstime.

This has been on the drawing board for about a century – cutting through the narrow isthmus between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific, and then utilising the river network that connects the lake to the Atlantic. Plans submitted to the Nicaraguan congress claim it will allow vessels of 250,000dwt to pass through it. We’ll believe it when we see it – building the Nicaraguan canal has mostly been used as a stick to drive cheaper transit fees from Panama.