51
Table 4.2
Selected major water engineering projects globally (name, type, expected construction costs, planned construction time, short description and
potential consequences)
Project
Type
Brief description
Costs
[billion
USD]
Timeline
(Environmental)
Impacts
References
Nicaragua
Canal
Navigation
286 km long navigation canal
(90 km through Lake
Nicaragua), 27.6 m deep, 520 m
wide
40
2015Relocation of
indigenous people
(hundreds of
villages); no
environmental
feasibility study
released so far, but
impacts expected on
Lake Nicaragua (salt
intrusion,
sedimentation,
invasive species,
pollution) and
destruction of
around 400,000 ha
of pristine
rainforests and
wetlands
Meyer and Huete-Pérez
( 2014 )
Nicaragua
Emergency
Water Transfer
Project (Tarim
River
Restoration
Project)
Restoration/
transfer
Artifi cial canal to divert water
(annual average: 320 × 10
6
m
3
)
from Lake Bostan and the
Daxihaizi Reservoir to the Tarim
River
1.3
2000–2006
Transfers depend on
the hydrological
condition of the
Kaidn-Konqui River
system (Bostan
Lake); ecosystem
integrity
strengthened
Li et al. ( 2009 ), Zhang
et al. ( 2010 ), and Sun et al.
( 2011 )
China
(continued)
4 A Global View on Future Major Water Engineering Projects