Oil refinery: Government should compensate affected people timely
Global Rights Alert - 1 hour ago
By Winfred Ngabiirwe
Posted Monday, July 14 2014 at 01:00
If all goes well, Uganda will, in four years, begin to produce its
oil. Present reserves are estimated at 3.5 billion barrels. Revenue
estimates indicate that at peak production of 200,000 barrels a day,
expected anywhere from 2025 to 2035, the country may collect up to
$3.3 billion annually.
By the end of 2012, total cumulative investments in the sector had
reached $1.8 billion, which was expected to increase to $2.5 billion
by the end of 2013, according to the National Budget Framework Paper
2014/15. The government is keen on ensuring everything goes according
to plan. Before the year ends, it will have announced the successful
lead investor/operator for its refinery whose capacity is 60,000
barrels per day.
It has already nominated officials to head the National Oil Company
and the National Petroleum Authority - two key institutions in the
exploration, development and production of petroleum in Uganda. These
are commendable efforts but more focus on people is needed. A national
budget should be one of the areas to look at to ascertain our
expectations in that regard, especially in respect to compensation and
resettlement of those the sector will directly affect.
In her budget presentation, Finance minister Maria Kiwanuka restricted
discussion of the oil and gas sector to three out of the 154
paragraphs of the 10,678-word text. Key in her remarks, government has
to date compensated half of the 7,118 people it is displacing for the
oil refinery, the selection of its lead investor is nearly complete,
and construction is slated to begin next year upon completion of the
engineering designs.
The refinery will be built on about 29 square kilometres of land in
Kabaale Parish, Buseruka Sub-county in Hoima District. What Ms
Kiwanuka did not tell the country is whether the 2014/2015 budget had
prioritised compensation and resettlement of remaining people the
refinery will affect - technically labelled Project Affected Persons
(PAPs).
If, indeed, the government is serious about starting construction of
the refinery next year, this should have been priority. Development of
the oil and gas sector ought to be of benefit to Ugandans, none more
so than those who are directly suffering the inconvenience of
displacement for the refinery.
The remaining PAPs in the refinery area are going through hell,
according to research Global Rights Alert and multiple other
organisations have done. There are those who have been waiting in vain
for compensation for the last two years from the time the Ministry of
Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) stopped them from using and/or
developing their land. Their neighbours who opted for pay-outs
received some of their money and left the villages. It is unclear when
their outstanding arrears will be paid.
Among the affected persons are also those who opted for resettlement.
There is no evidence to show that the government has already secured
the land on which to resettle people as it promised. It has not issued
tenders for construction of houses, schools or churches that should be
in the resettlement village. Yet MEMD expects to complete the process
of compensation and resettlement by September 2014.
This deadline, like the two ones before it, is unlikely to be met. The
the National Budget Framework Paper says Shs35 billion is required to
pay out the remaining people. It does not say where this money will
come from. Already, there is another Shs32 billion needed to fund
other priority outputs in the sector that is not in the ministry's
spending plans.
So, for how long will the affected people to wait? The government does
not need to be reminded that the compensation and resettlement
exercise should be fair, timely and adequate as provided for in our
Constitution!
Ms Ngabiirwe is the Executive Director, Global Rights Alert.
info@globalrightsalert.org
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