‘Danger is imminent’ – Ugandans accuse EACOP tree clearings of flooding

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Flooding submerged farms near TotalEnergies 700 acre industrial estate. The oil major has compensated 88 people. Officials say thousands of people have been affected.

Floods first ravaged Sam Akuguzibwe’s three-acre garden in May last year. His family had farmed this land for decades, but they had never seen anything like it. Seemingly out of nowhere, rushing waters submerged their garden, as well as hundreds of hectares in the surrounding region of Albertine Graben in western Uganda. Akuguzibwe, 56, desperately withstood the inevitable before abandoning his harvest.

“My crops were drowning and the water continued to bring more sand and gravel”, explains this father of ten children. “My garden has lost its fertility.”

In Uganda, climate change has contributed to more extreme weather conditions, including heavy rains. This is the result of global greenhouse gas emissions – many of which come from the burning of fossil fuels – but the much more local operations of a major oil company have also been blamed for the devastating floods. In 2021, TotalEnergies began construction of a 700-acre industrial estate in Buliisa district. Part of the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, the sprawling site will host construction camps, a drilling support base and a central occupation facility with a processing capacity of 190,000 barrels of crude oil per day. A first part of its construction consisted of clearing huge expanses of trees.

Buliisa District Environment Officer Rogers Tusiime estimates that the deforestation has left local residents vulnerable and negatively affected around 4,000 people. Trees greatly reduce the likelihood of flooding by slowing and reducing surface runoff as well as storing water. Tusiime says TotalEnergies did not take this into account.

“They made a very big oversight by clearing all the trees without putting in place a proper drainage system for the water,” he says. “Total never did their due diligence and their biggest mistake was to clean everything up at once, not in phases…The land was left bare and the floods took them by surprise.”

Local experts and activists have come to the same conclusion after last year’s devastation. “The flood problem is a clear sign that danger is imminent,” says Dickens Kamugisha, executive director of the African Energy Governance Institute (AFIEGO). “Right now livelihoods are being lost and biodiversity is being destroyed – and many more of these disasters will happen if Total doesn’t stop this bad oil project.”

In response to concerns about the environmental impact of a 1,443km oil pipeline, local activists have called on Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to reassess the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of the project. They were not only ignored but silenced. In December 2022, a group of activists protested outside NEMA offices in Kampala. They were arrested and charged with “incitement to violence”. As African Arguments has previously reported, the Ugandan government has responded to local opposition to EACOP by stepping up its use of repressive tactics such as arrests and the closure of NGOs.

Criticism of the project, however, is not limited to Uganda. The East African Court of Justice is due to rule in August on the suspension of EACOP until questions about its social and environmental impact – which go far beyond Buliisa district – are resolved. The international #StopEACOP campaign successfully lobbied several major banks to withhold funding for the controversial project. Meanwhile, the European Parliament passed a resolution in September 2022 calling on TotalEnergies to postpone the project for a year, citing “human rights violations”, “judicial harassment” and “tremendous” impacts on local communities, the environment and the climate.

TotalEnergies rejected the European Parliament’s accusations, saying they were based on “factual inaccuracies”, and rejected an invitation from its human rights subcommittee.

NEMA public relations manager Tony Acidria similarly refutes widespread concerns. He told African Arguments that the original valuation report was “perfect”. He added that TotalEnergies uses “environmentally friendly technology” and said the project will ultimately improve living standards.

In response to questions from African Arguments about the floods, TotalEnergies said it had “considered all complaints from local residents regarding flooding following heavy rains”. He said he acquired nine flood-affected acres and compensated landowners and 88 others. The company added that it had engaged “a leading Ugandan hydrology consultancy firm” to develop a “retention pond system”.

For people in western Uganda who have seen their farms and homes submerged, it is too little too late. Floods last May destroyed some people’s livelihoods and sources of livelihood, and officials say thousands more were affected than they were compensated. For example, Akuguzibwe was informed that he was not eligible for payments. “I’m bitter because these problems started to haunt us as soon as Total started working here,” he says.

Many others in the area, like Joan Bujuni, 25, walk several kilometers every day to fetch water since nearby wells were destroyed by flooding. Some fear that the standing water has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and waterborne diseases. The changing landscape has also attracted marauding elephants from nearby Murchison Falls National Park, where oil exploration takes place. The animals have trampled the crops and attacked the inhabitants.

“I worry a lot about my children,” says Bujuni, who is also a farmer and mother of four. “I fear they will suffer from disease after drinking dirty water, or even be attacked by elephants.”

Bujuni has also been denied compensation and has been renting a one-acre piece of land two miles from her home since her garden was submerged in floods.

Charles Onencan, a local flood-affected people officer, has so far registered 102 affected people in the villages of Kasenyi and Kisomere. He says they intend to go to court to seek redress, but their efforts have been hampered by financial constraints. “We are still recording the names of the people involved,” he says, adding that “the biggest challenge would be getting arrested for following or protesting.”

The Buliisa district environment office fears that more communities will be affected if a solution is not put in place imminently. Authorities had previously carried out a reforestation program in which 500,000 tree seedlings are given to residents to plant around their homes, but insufficient funding has slowed the initiative this year.

Meanwhile, international anti-EACOP activists continue to decry the environmental impacts of a pipeline that will cross sensitive ecosystems and areas of significant biodiversity in Uganda and Tanzania. Climate campaigners also note that EACOP is expected to emit more than 25 times the annual greenhouse gas emissions of Uganda and Tanzania combined.

John Okot is a freelance journalist based in Gulu, northern Uganda.

Copyright African Arguments. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source News Service English

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