Worth Noting:
- The people of Uganda need to know that the oil reserves are on shore located in areas of social importance and critical biodiversity including land owned by vulnerable people, national parks, game reserves, forests, wetlands, lakes, rivers, sacred natural sites and territories and many others.
- They deserve to know that Local communities are suffering untold injustice, they continue to lose their land, suffer unfair and delayed compensation, absolute compensation rates, intimidation by companies and government officials and the only remedy is that the oil affected people either subjected to unfair and delayed compensation or unfair use of courts against communities.
On 1st February, 2022, The Ugandan and Tanzanian governments alongside TotalEnergies (U) B.V. and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) (U) Ltd in a ceremony at Kololo Independence grounds presided over by the Ugandan president, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the Tanzanian vice president, H.E. Philip Isdor Mpango, TotalEnergies’ president, Mr. Patrick Pouyanne, and several other officials announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) for oil projects across lake Albert and other areas of natural importance. The Lake Albert oil projects consist of the Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields as well as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The EACOP will run from Hoima in Western Uganda to the port of Tanga at the Indian Ocean in Tanzania.
The FID signing comes after a widely marketed the narrative that Uganda’s oil exploitation efforts would boost the Ugandan economy while improving communities’ livelihoods. Yes, the signatories can have such an argument that they seeking avenues to improve the countries’ economies and consequently, communities’ wellbeing but is that all. The fact is that oil activities in any country affects its people. Its absurd that the dark side of oil exploration is never talked about by the FID signatories. And I believe citizens deserve to know, young people deserve to know how their motherland will look like after the signatories are no longer there in decades to come.
The people of Uganda need to know that the oil reserves are on shore located in areas of social importance and critical biodiversity including land owned by vulnerable people, national parks, game reserves, forests, wetlands, lakes, rivers, sacred natural sites and territories and many others. They deserve to know that Local communities are suffering untold injustice, they continue to lose their land, suffer unfair and delayed compensation, absolute compensation rates, intimidation by companies and government officials and the only remedy is that the oil affected people either subjected to unfair and delayed compensation or unfair use of courts against communities. Worse still, women, girls, children and youth in the oil affected communities are suffering additional injustices in terms of family breakdowns, denial of access and control of compensation funds, school dropouts, deterioration of health services, clean water, use of cut-off dates to stop land owners from using their land before compensation, degradation of social fabric and many others.
As a country we continue to massively suffer the worst environmental rights abuses and many others. Over 70% of Uganda’s critical biodiversity remains attacked. Wetlands, lakes, swamps and others host and support an extraordinary vast number of plants and animals, they provide vital services to people such as access to clean water, wetlands are essential to flood protection and absorb vast amounts of carbon so, their destruction is no doubt going to worsen Uganda’s climate vulnerability. The FID supporters are not looking at all these and these people lack the means to fight injustice and defend their rights.
Yes, the president in his speech during the ceremony attacked the civil society organizations uttering defamatory statements that they are people with no work, spread a lot of confusion, they should go and sleep in the bush and that the FID signatories are not hiding anything. Well, we ask Mr. president to address the mentioned challenges affecting oil affected communities and Uganda at large. Anyway, such statements were expected and we shall not be carried away.
Either way, we advise the government that Climate action should been incorporated as part of the deal because protecting and restoring wetlands and other critical biodiversity means protecting ourselves from dire consequences of climate change. Instead of investing in a sector that remains responsible for the worsening climate change impact across the world, the Ugandan government and private sector should invest in the green economic sectors of tourism, agriculture, fisheries and clean energy. Per the Uganda Green Growth Development Strategy, these sectors have the potential to create nearly 4 million jobs, “enhance national GDP by 10 % [and] reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28% relative to the conventional growth pathway
With or without the FID, both the Ugandan government and oil companies must avoid commencement of oil production to give courts time to determine the cases before them to stop the social and environmental dangers of oil activities. The rights of oil-affected communities whose livelihoods have been disrupted should be respected and the damages they have suffered be compensated for.
The transboundary challenges of Uganda’s oil activities must also be addressed. At the moment, there is no inclusive cross-border framework to protect critical ecosystems such as Lake Victoria, River Nile, Lake Albert, MFNP, Budongo and Bugoma forest reserves and others from oil threats. Commencing oil exploitation amidst these lacunas will worsen human and environmental abuses in Uganda and the region at large.
And finally, the government of Uganda should stop harassing civil society groups. The delegitimization, belittling, suspension of civil society organizations (CSOs), arrests, illegal detentions and other violations against civil society actors are likely to increase as the Ugandan government and oil companies seek to produce oil at all costs. Youth for Green Communities (YGC) together with its partners and other CSOs will continue to work to fill the gaps in the functions of the Government; for the welfare of the people in local communities and Uganda. Climate action must be part of the deal.
Aryampa Brighton
aryampa.brighton@gmail.com / baryampa@ygcug.org
The writer is a lawyer and Chief Executive Officer of Youth for Green Communities (YGC)