Leaded by Totalenergies, the megaprojet Eacop meets the opposition of activists, who consider that it threatens the fragile ecosystem of the region and the populations who live there.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Tanzania gave its agreement on Tuesday, February 21, to the construction of a $ 3.5 billion dollars (around 3.3 billion euros) as part of a controversial megaprojet intended to transport the Eastern African Hydrocarbons in international markets, despite recurring criticism of environmental defenders. This oil pipeline, about 1,500 km long, must connect the deposits of Lake Albert, in western Uganda, at the Tanzanian coast on the Indian Ocean.
This project requires the approval of the two countries. In January, Uganda issued a license to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Company Consortium (EACOP), 62 % detained by the Totalnergies French giant. Approval by the Tanzanian government “marks another step forward for the EACOP, as it allows the start of the main construction activities in Tanzania at the end of the process of access to current land,” said the director General of Eacop in Tanzania, Wendy Brown.
The project “will comply not only with the laws of Tanzania and Uganda, but also to the strictest international standards”, in particular in matters of “human rights”, assured M me Brown. According to her, some 13,000 households are affected by the layout of the pipeline. The project, in the amount of $ 10 billion between Tanzania and Uganda, meets the opposition of militants and environmental defense groups, which believe that it threatens the fragile ecosystem of the region and the populations who live there.
“duty of vigilance”
“We are proud of this pipeline because it will increase the influence of Tanzania in the world,” said January Makamba, the Tanzanian Minister of Energy. “There is a lot of noise against this project, but we redouble their efforts to preserve the environment,” he continued, evoking the vegetation plantation programs on the layout of the pipeline. “We have complied with all environmental, security and human rights standards,” also assured the minister.
Six NGOs assigned totalness before the Paris court in late 2022, summarizing the group to respect a law, voted in 2017, which imposed on multinationals a “duty of vigilance” on their activities in the world. The deliberation is expected on February 28.
Lake Albert, a natural border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), conceals an amount of crude oil estimated at 6.5 billion barrels, of which approximately 1.4 billion are currently being recovered.