Uganda and Tanzania are set to begin work on a massive crude oil pipeline a year after the International Energy Agency warned that the world risked not meeting its climate goals if new fossil fuel projects were not stopped. The two East African countries say their priority is economic development.
Juma Hamisi, not his real name, keeps his distance, careful not to trespass, as he points to mounds of rubble spread across an open field. They are signs that a thriving community once lived here in a mix of concrete and grass-thatched mud houses.
At this time of year, the surrounding fertile land would normally be covered with a variety of sprouting crops – enough to feed the village, along with a surplus to sell at local markets. But it too lies bare.
“We used to be the source of cassava and lemons, now there’s scarcity. We can’t even harvest the coconuts you see over there because it’s not our land any more,” Mr Hamisi says.
Several signs bearing the name Tanzania Petroleum Development Cooperation, a state agency, now claim ownership of the area where villagers once lived, farmed and played.
Some of the inhabitants of the Chongoleani peninsula, some 18km (11 miles) north of Tanzania’s port city of Tanga, sold their land for compensation two years ago, after the government signed a deal to construct a pipeline to transport crude oil from the shores of Lake Albert in western Uganda.
Uganda’s chamber of mines and petroleum, says of the EU’s comments about the pipeline.
“Unlike wealthy nations which will remain wealthy even when their oil and gas revenue is removed, we cannot afford to gamble the future of Ugandan generations on hypotheticals,” Mr Karuhanga says.
The first oil is expected to be tapped in three years with at least 230,000 barrels pumped out every day at its peak – projected to earn Uganda between $1.5bn-$3.5bn a year, 30-75% of its annual tax revenue. Tanzania will reportedly get at least $12 a barrel, close to $1bn a year.
Despite the estimated windfall, campaign group Stop Eacop says the pipeline will produce 34 million tonnes of harmful carbon emissions each year. It passes near Murchison Falls National Park, an area rich in biodiversity, as well as farmlands.
