why we can’t give up the fight against EACOP
WRITTEN BY TWINOMUGISA PIUS
February 1st is when the Ugandan and Tanzanian governments made the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), Tilenga and Kingfisher projects—another landmark towards the destruction of the Earth’s climate. This was a launch for the start of the construction of the world’s longest heated pipeline (EACOP) that will take 36 months to complete. The pipeline which will cost over US$10B will trail from Buseruka on lake Mwitanzige (Albert) in Bunyoro region to Tanga on the Tanzanian coast covering a distance of about 1,440 Kilometres.
This project that is being implemented by the Tanzanian and Ugandan government with funding from TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Corporation (CNOOC) has already caused more harm than good. Thousands of people have already been displaced from their homes without compensation. The Ugandan government implored a full force army to chase away people and forcefully evict from their homes those who were not abiding. A number of climate activists have been brutalised before they were arrested, threatened and some have been killed trying to campaign against this project.
The Final Investment decision comes after the recent Glasgow COP26 where so much of the world’s attention was put on curbing greenhouse emissions and phasing down unabated coal and fossil fuel production yet we don’t see any leader condemning the EACOP. This at one hand continues to show the wrongs with our government systems and the continued capitalism that trails with multinational corporations. The whole investment is actually a conglomerate of capitalists, given that various banks have continued to back this project despite constant calls from different climate groups calling upon them to abandon this project. The Ugandan and Tanzanian government as well as CNOOC and TotalEnergies are aware of what catastrophes EACOP will have on nature, people and climate but their focus is on money—as it has always been. Museveni has been heard on various occasions calling the project “my oil” and this clarifies why he is so much ready to pounce on anyone who tries to disrupt its implementation.
According to StopEACOP website, nearly a third of EACOP is set to pass through lake Nalubaale (Victoria) basin which over 40 million people depend on for water and food production. The same pipeline will cross over 200 rivers. With its set path in the seismic zone which constantly experiences earthquakes, oil leakages are obviously going to be at the centre stage, resulting in unimaginable effects on these water bodies. The wildfires from these leakages will also not spare the Budongo and Mabira natural forests as well as the various national parks where this project passes. As the world tries to reset itself to remain below the 1.5 degrees celsius of global warming, the EACOP becomes another great obstacle to the fulfilment of this most recent Glasgow Climate Pact. According to Climate Clock, we only have a time window of less than seven years to prevent our climate from going beyond 1.5 degrees celsius, beyond which we can never have a return.
One would wonder what then is at stake? Can we give up on fighting against the EACOP? Definitely not. There is still much hope that this project will be a failure—only if we are ready to get involved. Looking at over 15 years of its prolonged implementation and the more five years ahead of its proposed completion, the project is still on the losing end. Many banks are continuing to distance themselves from funding the project while others are yet to give their final stand. The main campaign currently is against the building of the pipeline and with continued involvement of various stakeholders, the EACOP will be history. There is a need for more people to join various grassroot activists on ground despite the constant threats, arrests and harassments to sensitise the communities on the best ways to fight this unjust project. Global climate campaigners are joining the cause and calling on TotalEnergies, CNOOC and all involved in this project to stop it in order to save the climate. This could be the best time to contribute towards the stopping of this project. These campaigns include twitterstorms, sending emails and messages to various bank officials as well as direct action at the premises of the EACOP funders. Websites like StopEACOP have been put up to guide people on how to impactfully participate in the #StopEACOP campaign in the most impactful ways possible. We need to put it upon ourselves to stop the EACOP.
