During the next five years, the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) expects that Uganda’s land acquisition procedure for oil and gas infrastructure will be a model for best practices in megaprojects both within and outside of Uganda.
The PAU director of legal and corporate affairs, Mr. Ali Ssekatawa, stressed via an article the necessity of a well-organized compensation and resettlement scheme for those impacted by any large infrastructure project to succeed.
This subject has been a bone of contention between the Ugandan administration and several environmentalist groups, some foreign and some indigenous.
While Uganda’s push to legitimize its oil reserves seems like a step in the right direction for the country’s economic growth, these environmentalist groups are weary that the areas containing said oil fields are inhabited by people, and any oil exploration in the area would lead to the displacement of said people and the destruction of the environment.
According to a report by The Monitor, a Ugandan news agency, some of the local populations in Uganda have been significantly impacted by the country’s oil and gas operations, and managing this sizeable population of project-affected individuals is essential to the projects’ success.
Mr. Ssekatawa pointed out that the main goal of Uganda’s resettlement action plans for oil projects was to leave project-affected people in a better condition than before found. He also added that as of February, resettlement and compensation of project-affected persons stood at 99.5% for Kingfisher, 94% for Tilenga, and 65 percent for East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
The report further discloses that more than 111 resettlement homes have been completed, 93 of which have already been given to project-affected individuals. Another 242 are being built, and 154 plots have been given to contractors so they may start work.
oil and gas projects are extensive with the Kingfisher Development Area requiring 1,258 acres of land, while the Tilenga Field Development Area, which has an estimated total of 5,551 project-affected persons, requires 2,901.4 acres. EACOP requires 2,740 acres of land and is expected to impact a cross-section of people in different locations, many of whom have variances in their compensation needs.
EACOP requires a 30-meter-wide ‘Right-of-Way’ along the entire pipeline length in order to construct the pipeline, together with land for the ‘Above Ground Facilities’ such as the pumping stations and the Marine Terminal.
