Oil extraction will ruin Uganda’s environment

 

By HALIMA ABDALLAH

The excitement over vast oil and gas discoveries in Uganda has just began; but it may not climax as yet, as serious environmental concerns arise — the same areas that have the minerals beneath, provides for over 70 per cent of the country’s conservation areas for wildlife and natural forest resources at the top.

Now the country is at a crossroads, to exploit all the oil wells at the detriment of the environment and perish or strike a balance between conservation and development.

This will entail leaving some of the protected areas off limits, or maintaining only protected areas viewed to be more important and let others be degazzeted.

Given the revenue projections accruing from oil, the government is likely to exploit all the wells.

“I suspect the government will insist on getting all the oil available. Can you imagine the day the donors will stop telling us do this and that?” said Senior Presidential Advisor on Media and Public Relations John Nagenda.

Tullow Oil, the company that is doing exploration of oil in the Albertine Rift, projects that the country can produce 2 billion barrels of oil a year, which in turn will raise $2 billion each year for the next 25 years.

Out of the 29 wells dug, 28 showed prospects of oil or gas or both. Many more wells are still under exploration.

“We will double the revenue; oil presents a significant effect on Uganda’s economy. Oil is an opportunity to develop tourism,” said Dr Brian Glover, General Manager Tullow Oil.

If produced well, it will place Uganda among the top 50 oil producing countries with an estimated 100,000 barrels a day.

There is a problem though; the oil and gas discoveries made so far are in the Albertine Rift, which is Africa’s most ecologically diverse and protected area.

Indeed, two of the promising wells are within the country’s largest conservation area, Murchison National Park.

Murchison National Park is home to the elephants, lions, giraffes, buffaloes and varieties of antelopes.

The Rubongo forest within the park is home to chimpanzees and other rainforest creatures.

The park is bisected by the Nile River that is host to hippos, crocodiles and a host of water birds including the rare shoebill.

Generally, the Albertine Rift is the home of 52 per cent of all African birds; Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, for instance, has hundreds of endemic bird species
 

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Africa’s 39 per cent share of all mammals are to be found in the area, including chimpanzees and gorillas.

It is also home of 14 per cent of all African reptiles, 35 per cent of all butterflies and 19 per cent of all amphibians.

The biodiversity in the Albertine Rift is the backbone of the tourism industry that contributes about $600 million a year, but with a potential to grow. 

Though the figure is much smaller compared with what is projected from oil, preserving the biodiversity presents a lifetime benefit to the people and the environment.

The Rift Valley contains crucial ecosystems like lakes, rivers and wetlands that provide water for the country and as far downstream as Egypt.

The water sources are used domestically, for irrigation and to support the thriving fish industry.

The company has not yet explored in the lake, but intends to go offshore in future.

Pollution of water resulting from oil or chemical spills is a real threat that the companies cannot guarantee will not happen.

“Oil is solid but that doesn’t mean to say that we are safer from it. We only need to do it to international standards,” said Mr Glover.

The forests assist in climate modification, provision of economic activities like arts and crafts, food, medicines, ecological services like water retention and soil conservation benefits.

That is why the United Nations Development Programme has provided $3.4 million for forest conservation in the Albertine Rift.

Environmental risk

At every stage of oil and gas development, however, there is an environmental risk.

The drilling involves a liquid phase which is modified with various chemical additives, both liquid and solid, to align the performance for drilling conditions underneath the earth.

The drill cuttings, which are pieces of rock particles displaced from the earth crust to create the hole and waste fluid, are sometimes contaminated with crude oil, salt toxicity, corrosive elements, high electro-conductivity and other chemicals spilt from the drill sites

“If handled wrongly the cuttings can cause serious impact on the environment, wildlife, human beings and plants,” said Robert Ddamulira, Oil and Gas Project Manager at WWF Uganda.
WWF Uganda is part of the global network of WWF International, a leading independent conservation organisation.

“It is probable that impurities can be found in some drilling chemicals such as Barite, a key drilling chemical, which is known to exist with impurities of mercury in the natural; such impurities can be the likely sources of heavy metal contamination,” he added.

For example, when the chemical mixture is very salty owing to the various chemical salts used in drilling, since animals, birds and plants are not used to these kinds of conditions, the chemical can kill animals, birds and plants when they come into contact with them.

Besides, birds and amphibians such as frogs normally mistake these wastes, which are normally contained in large ponds about 30 metres by 20 metres for wetland habitats, which leads to high mortality. Glover, however, said that they will make 10 metre by 10 metre holes.

In Uganda, these wastes have been found to contain above normal levels of heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium.

These chemicals are known to cause cancer, mutagens, birth defects and other negative health impacts on humans.

The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) however, said it is yet to establish the content of the mud.

The samples have been taken to foreign laboratories for testing while others are being tested locall