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By George Mangula
The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) must hold public hearings to enable effective public participation in and consensus on the Tilenga oil project, over 10 civil society organisations (CSOs) working to prevent the impacts of oil on biodiversity in the Albertine Graben have said.
The Tilenga oil project is being developed by Total E&P Uganda B.V. in one of the most biodiverse areas in Africa in Nwoya and Buliisa districts. River Nile, Lake Albert, Murchison Falls National Park and Budongo in addition to Bugoma forests are key national and transboundary ecosystems that are going to be affected and are within the Tilenga project area of influence.
Bungugu and Karuma wildlife reserves in addition to the Murchison Falls-Albert Delta Wetland System which is a Ramsar Site are also within the project’s area of influence. On Tuesday October 16, 2018, NEMA published a public notice in the media calling for public comments on the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) study undertaken for the Tilenga project.
In the public notice, NEMA did not indicate that it has an obligation to call for a public hearing on the Tilenga ESIA. Under the Environmental Impact Assessment [EIA] regulations of 1998, the Executive Director of NEMA is mandated to call for a public hearing where there is controversy or where the project may have transboundary impacts as the Tilenga project will.
“The fact that NEMA did not indicate the date for the public hearing which the law says must be held for projects such as the Tilenga one is a fundamental gap and it concerns us as much as it should concern all Ugandans and our partners,” Mr Dickens Kamugisha, the CEO of Africa Institute for Energy Govertnance (AFIEGO), says.
Kamugisha says the Tilenga project is located in one of the most biodiverse areas in Africa and is going to affect key forests, rivers and conservation areas which support the most pre-dominant economic 2 activity in the country, agriculture, and on which Ugandans rely to make an income from tourism, fishing, transport and other economic uses.
Some of the CSOs calling for the public hearing are: AFIEGO, National Association of Professional Environmentalist (NAPE), Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST), Guild Presidents Forum on Oil Governance (GPFOG), Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), South Western Center for Policy and Advocacy (SOWIPA) and World Voices Uganda (WVU). Others are Citizens Concern Africa (CICOA), Community Transformation Foundation Network (COTFONE) –Greater Masaka, Green Organisation Africa (GOA)-Masindi, Oil Refinery Residents Association (ORRA)-Hoima, Kakindo Orphans Care-Buliisa, and Girl Power Foundation-Kasese · Friends of Nature-Kasese
