It’s one of the largest fossil fuel infrastructure projects under construction in the world: a massive oil pipeline connecting oilfields in western Uganda with a shipping port on the coast of Tanzania.
But the project’s development will displace 100,000 people. And it’s well underway.
The planned pipeline is being constructed by French fossil fuel giant TotalEnergies, which posted a 2022 profit of $20.5 billion. Yet as the company builds its site in western Uganda, thousands of people have seen their livelihoods devastated. The project has caused food insecurity and household debt, and has forced children to drop out of school when their families can’t pay school fees.
A new HRW report documents the project’s land acquisition process and details the disaster it has been for people who depended on their land for food and shelter.
Although 90 percent of people who will lose land to the project have received compensation from TotalEnergies, the project has suffered from multiyear delays in paying compensation, which has often been inadequate in the first place.
Farmers we spoke with described pressure and intimidation by officials from TotalEnergies EP Uganda and its subcontractors to take low levels of compensation that was inadequate to buy replacement land. Farmers also said they felt pressured to sign compensation agreements in English, a language many of them cannot read. Those who refused to sign faced harassment and even threats of court action. Many described being offered cash instead of the option of replacement land, in line with international standards.
The project poses grave environmental risks and will contribute to the global climate crisis. In addition to the environmental harm caused by burning fossil fuels, the planned pipeline route traverses protected areas and wetlands, posing threats to biodiversity and ecosystems that local communities depend on for their sustenance.
“They come here promising us everything,” one resident said. “We believed them. Now we are landless, the compensation money is gone, what fields we have left are flooded, and dust fills the air.”
Read More