Rising Water Levels of Lake Albert disrupt Oil activities and Community Livelihoods in Buliisa
As the rest of the country and the world grapples with the impact of COVID 19, local community and oil and gas developments in Buliisa are struggling with the raising water levels of Lake Albert., Thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and a number of fishing villages and pre-urban areas along the lake shores are currently submerged. These floods have resulted in internal displacement of families within the districts and others are leaving Buliisa altogether.
With Buliisa hosting Total E & P Uganda’s Tilenga project, it is clear that Oil and gas activities have not been spared by the floods. Large quantity of commercially viable oil and gas was discovered in Buliisa and it is nearing development stage. According to the government of Uganda, (MEMD) Tilenga project consists of 412 oil wells, which are planned to be drilled on 35 well pads and it is expected to be producing 190,000 barrels of oil per day. Pressure on land in Buliisa had already been a concern with government and oil companies currently in the process of resettling tens of thousands of people. Total E&P developer of Tilenga exploration area may have to undertake another Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) because the settlement pattern has changed in Buliisa District due to the floods. Having undertaken RAPs in 2018 and early 2019, the delayed compensation for the Project Affected Persons has come as a blessing to some people since to them, it is still their land since government has not yet paid for it.
The raising water levers have also impacted an equally high number of locals in the Sub-Counties of Buliisa, Butiaba, Kigwera and Buliisa and Butiaba Town Councils who have been displaced by this calamity. Health centres, schools, markets, places of worship and recreation facilities have been submerged. Many Bagungu people had left their homes and resettled at the landing sites, but the floods have forced them to go back, so what may have been vacant land in 2018–19 is no longer vacant and if the government insists on going on with the old RAPs with its accompanying “cut-off date”, many people will lose their property with no compensation and nowhere to go.
Some of the areas demarcated for the oil structures have also flooded for example the water abstraction point at Waluhoiza landing site in Kisansya West, the stretch between River Waja (foreigners call it Waiga) and Bugoigo is flooded and the feeder pipeline to the refinery in Hoima passes there and those who have been displaced have resettled on the land demarcated for the oil and gas infrastructure. The flooding of the oil wells in Kisimo and Kityanga villages have caused fear among the residents of Buliisa and other stakeholders as what may be the likely impact of such situation. Neither government nor oil companies have come up with the statement on the submerged oil wells in the region and people have been left with no choice but to speculate on the likely impacts on the same. One Facebook user, Asaba Harrison posted to his timeline on 12th November, 2020 “with the submerging of two oil wells of Kasemene 3 and Werindi by floods in Buliisa district. Don’t you think water sources are at risk of being contaminated”. Harrison’s fears were echoed by another resident who was interviewed by the New Vision.
Since the government has not resettled people, people have “resettled themselves” in areas which are ecologically sensitive like swamps, wetlands, and forest reserve which has worsened the environmental situation of Buliisa. Some people who had depended on fishing have began dealing in fuel (firewood and charcoal) since they have resettled far away from the lake. The Ministry of Water and Environment in their 2016 state of Uganda’s forest cited encroachment in Central Forest Reserves and high rates of deforestation and forest degradation as major challenges facing forestry in the country.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned negative environmental impacts of the raising water levels, there have been some positive results. Some environmental gains include but are not limited to; return of the fingerlings to the lakeshores, some fish species reappearing after people had taken them to have got extinct, some birds either reappearing or their population increasing and wetland vegetation growing back. Therefore, as government designs stimulus packages for the economy, special attention needs to be given to local communities in Buliisa who are facing a double tragedy. Besides the impact of COVID 19, they are dealing with the off shore challenge of raising water one hand, and onshore, they are dealing with increasing pressure on land by oil developments.
Co-Authored by:
Kiiza Wilson, of Bugungu Heritage and Information Centre, Community Based Organisation Based in Buliisa, and
James Muhindo, of the Civil Society Coalition on Oil and Gas (CSCO)
Submerged houses in Butiaba. Photo by Kiiza Wilson
