Mega Protection

By Professor Shafiq-Ur-Rehman | November 2020

In spite of the fact that at the UN level prima-facie, the world governments seem to be on the same page and have pledged to implement all or most international policy agreements, conventions, protocols, treaties on environmental protection, use of natural resources, climate change, biodiversity, renewable energy, green technology and sustainable development goals. Yet, primarily driven by their national economic interests, developing countries undertake such mega projects that have all the potential to cause environmental degradation, fragmentation of human and wildlife populations and result in undesirable accidents without precise assessment of their impacts on the environment, people, water resources, wildlife and habitat.

However, local communities, civil society organizations and environmental experts watch such developments with deep concern about the safety of all stakeholders and raise their voice through media to forestall the accruing damages in the project area.

With steady increase in the world population and ever-increasing demand for energy supplies, oil and natural gas pipelines have become a necessity to reduce the cost of their uninterrupted supply from source areas to demand areas. Notable examples of major trans-boundary oil pipelines include Kazakhstan-China pipeline (2798 km) delivering 142 million barrels per day from the Caspian Sea to Xinjiang, Key Stone Pipeline (2456 km) from Alberta, Canada to Illinois, USA, delivering 0.83 mbpd, Druzhba Pipeline (4000 km) that runs from Central Russia to northern Germany with a capacity of 1.4 mbpd, and Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline (4857 km) that transports 0.3 mbpd from Russia to China.

Crude oil usually varies noticeably in its density and volatility and may appear from a very thin and volatile liquid to a quite thick, semi-solid and heavy oil. As such, it can be categorized into four main types, i.e. very light, light, medium and heavy, on the basis of its viscosity and wax content. Transportation of heavy crude oil through long distance pipelines requires several pumping and heating stations installed at regular distances to keep its temperature high enough, up to 50 °C, to avoid precipitation of wax on the inner walls of the pipeline that reduces flow rate.

A case, in this context, relates to the construction of 2 feet wide, 1445 km long East African Crude Oil Pipeline, extending from Hoima, Western Uganda, to the Tanzanian port city of Tanga on the Indian Ocean. It has been designed to deliver 216,000 barrels of crude oil per day at its terminal point with the help of 6 electric-powered pumping and 23 heating stations along the course of the pipeline. The pipeline is to be laid about 2 meters below the ground surface by digging a linear trench and ground clearance on either side of the trench for several meters, hence disturbing local ecology and human population. The initial 300 km of the pipeline will cut across 8 districts of Uganda and the remaining portion of 1150 km through 24 districts of Tanzania, while wrapping around a seismically active zone near the southern tip of Lake Victoria.

Subsequent to the recent discoveries of new oil fields around Lake Albert basin with a currently estimated reserve of 6.5 billion barrels of oil, in 2016 the Government of Uganda awarded 5 petroleum production licences to Tullow Uganda and 3 to Total Uganda for 25 years. Together these two companies were to invest US$ 8 billion for drilling about 500 wells and development of requisite infrastructure. However, after a deal struck between the two major companies in April 2020, Total, after buying all shares of Tullow is now solely responsible for the exploration and development of the infrastructure. As petroleum exploration and development continues in the region, the likelihood of more such pipelines is written on the wall.

WWF and CSCO (Civil Society Coalition on Oil & Gas in Uganda) published their preliminary environmental and socio-economic threat analysis of the project in 2017, wherein numerous negative ecological and social impacts were categorized in four levels, i.e. severe, significant, moderate, and marginal. Reviews of the impact assessments by the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), found the assessments to be vague on land ownership, and the pipeline not fit for the purpose.

Negative ecological impacts of the project included threat to 34 plants species, 7 wildlife species, and 17 birds species already identified by the IUCN as vulnerable or endangered in view of their declining population. They are likely to be affected in the project area. Of particular interest among animals are the African wild dog, elephant, hippopotamus, lion, leopard, Temminck’s ground pangolin, and giraffe. The vulnerable or endangered bird species include the hooded vulture, grey crowned crane, the white-backed vulture and steppe eagle that use habitats within areas that may be affected by the project. Besides, the impact on surface water resources and wetlands of the Victoria and Tanganika lake basins, and groundwater aquifers used for irrigation and domestic consumption are also likely to be affected by the man-made changes in the project influence area.

It can be concluded that the project EACOP is neither socio-economically nor ecologically safe for people, wildlife, plants and water resources of the two countries.

International

Mega Protection

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