We Need to Protect Murchision Nation Park Critical Eco-Systems from Oil and Gas Activities
East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline
By: Paul Kato
Worth Noting:
- The country should also remember that before the outbreak of the Covid-19, the foreign exchange had grown by 10.1% from US$ 1.45 billion in 2017 to US$ 1.6 billion
- The tourism sector needs to be respected because it was growing steadily and now it has reached to 1.5 million tourists visiting the country and the current GDP of the sector is 7.7% only.
- It is also noted that the sector has been contributing to a total of 667,600 employments to Ugandans in the Travel and Tourism industry and this has constituted nearly 6.7% of Uganda’s Labor force than the oil and gas sector which is expected to contribute to160, 000 employment opportunities to Ugandan both indirect and direct.
The Albertine rift valley where the oil and gas activities are taking place, is a highly Eco sensitive area with 7 out of 15 of Uganda’s national parks, 8 protected forest reserves and several of African birds and reptile species which attract the biggest number of tourists in the country.
The activities of the risk interfering with communities’ social, economic, environment and livelihood as most of the activities are on the shores of Lake Albert where communities derive their livelihoods from, the lake which provides 30% of Uganda’s fish and also save the DRC communities.
It is noted that the operators that is to Total Energies (56.67% stake, in partnership with CNOOC which 28.33% and UNOC 15%) under the Tilenga project are planning to drill 400 wells including 132 in the Murchison falls National Park on 34 oil rigs .The other wells will be nearby and will threaten the park as well as forest reserves around the park and agriculture land. The oil activities are likely to disrupt the park which is one of the biggest and oldest parks in Uganda and which is one of the most visited parks.
The oil and gas activities in the national park will also disrupt the livelihoods of the animals especially the breeding sites of the animals and their habitants. According to the IPCC report and the scientific community about 600 truck trips will be crossing the park every month during the construction phase, And over 2000 trips per day between well during the exploitation period. The noise only will cause the migration of the animals which will result to human –animal conflicts with the Murchison National Park Host Communities for settlement and food and reduction of the foreign exchange.
The country should also remember that before the outbreak of the Covid-19, the foreign exchange had grown by 10.1% from US$ 1.45 billion in 2017 to US$ 1.6 billion
The tourism sector needs to be respected because it was growing steadily and now it has reached to 1.5 million tourists visiting the country and the current GDP of the sector is 7.7% only. It is also noted that the sector has been contributing to a total of 667,600 employments to Ugandans in the Travel and Tourism industry and this has constituted nearly 6.7% of Uganda’s Labor force than the oil and gas sector which is expected to contribute to160, 000 employment opportunities to Ugandan both indirect and direct. The critical eco-systems such as the National parks need to be protected from the oil activities because the oil will finished after some good years and National parks will have to stay forever.
Murchison fall National Park, locally known as Kabalega National Park is situated at the end of the Albertine rift valley and it is Uganda’s oldest and largest safari park. Murchison located 305 kilometers north of Kampala in Masindi District.
Therefore, I call on the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), Oil Companies and the Government of Uganda at large to ensure that the oil activities are not tempering with the animal livelihoods in the national parks and the forest reserves.
Paul Kato- Research Associate at Africa Institute for Energy Governance.
Katop.adyeeri@gmail.com
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