The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, the world’s longest heated pipeline, under construction by TotalÉnergies in East Africa, continues to cause concern, as long as it is fraught with threats.
In a report released today, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the pipeline has devastated the livelihoods of thousands of people in Uganda and will worsen the global climate crisis. If completed, it will include dozens of drilling rigs, hundreds of kilometers of roads, camps and other infrastructure, and a 1,443 kilometer pipeline linking the oilfields of western Uganda to the port of Tanga in eastern Tanzania.
Based on more than 90 interviews conducted in early 2023, including with 75 displaced families in five districts of Uganda, the report reveals that the development of the oilfield will ultimately result in the displacement of more than 100,000 people. Also, although 90% of the people who will lose land to the project have received compensation from TotalEnergies EP Uganda, the project has suffered from years of delays in the payment of compensation, as well as insufficient compensation, emphasizes the NGO.
Felix Horne, senior researcher with the Environment and Human Rights Division at HRW, explains “the EACOP project has been a disaster for the tens of thousands of people who have lost land that provided food for their families and an income for them. enabling them to send their children to school, and who have received insufficient compensation from TotalEnergies”.
The same project would also be “a catastrophe for the planet”. HRW argues that studies show that the construction and operation of EACOP poses serious risks to the environment. The pipeline route crosses sensitive ecosystems, including protected areas and wetlands of international importance, posing a threat to the biodiversity and ecosystems that local communities depend on for their livelihoods.
The NGO draws attention to the fact that the EACOP project is being developed at a time when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading authority on climate science , as well as the International Energy Agency and other organizations warn that no new fossil fuel projects can be built if the world is to meet the Paris Agreement Goals and limit the worst impacts of climate change .
She informs that due to opposition to the EACOP project from civil society organizations and climate activists in Uganda and around the world, many financial institutions and insurance companies have publicly pledged not to support the pipeline.
Financial institutions should avoid supporting EACOP due to the devastating effects of fossil fuels on climate change as well as future risks of serious human rights impacts, and should instead help Uganda harness its vast clean energy potential , invites HRW which is clearly opposed to the fact that the project is carried out”.
By OMA Newsletter N° 1243 of 10/07/2023
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
