NEMC defends crude oil pipeline project against activist smears

Dar es Salaam. The National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) has castigated a “smear campaign” against the $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) project.
NEMC’s response follows what activists have termed “serious environmental concerns” with regard to the proposed pipeline to be built from Hoima, Uganda, to the Tanzanian port city of Tanga.
They argue that construction of the pipeline will displace thousands of families, and threaten resources in the Lake Victoria and Nile basins.
They further say the pipeline will generate some 34 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, thus fuelling climate change.
But NEMC hit back yesterday, saying people who were opposed to the project were  either misinformed, or were simply against Africa’s development “for reasons best known to them and their backers”.
“These activists had an opportunity to air their views two years ago before NEMC and the minister responsible for the Environment issued a certificate of approval for the project. Doing what they are doing now shows that they harbour ill motives against the project,” NEMC director general  Samuel Gwamaka said.
He added that NEMC was satisfied that all the necessary environmental precautions had been taken.
“The evaluation of environmental impact was conducted by both local and international environmental consulting companies before the certificate was awarded,” Dr Gwamaka said.
RSK Group, COWI Tanzania Limited and JSB were some of the local and international consultancy companies that participated in the assessment.
RSK Group, which has its headquarters in the UK, markets itself on its website as a company that “prides itself for having a family of over 130 environmental, engineering and technical service experts who work together to provide practical solutions to some of the greatest challenges societies have ever faced.
“These challenges, and the responses to them, are perhaps best captured by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.”
Dr Gwamaka noted that the project had been duly registered, and that, going by the assessment, there was no way its implementation could adversely affect the environment.
“During the assessment process, NEMC reviewed and verified the necessary documents, and put in place plans to deal with adverse environmental and social impacts. We also involved all key stakeholders in all the eight regions the pipeline will pass through,” he said.
The EACOP project was registered with NEMC and given number 6725 in March 2017 as a project to be implemented by Total East Africa Midstream.
Dr Gwamaka said claims that people would be rendered homeless were baseless because all the affected residents would be compensated accordingly.
“In fact, the affected households will be compensated with higher quality housing units than some of those they had before the exercise,” he said.
He added that NEMC would continue to monitor, and ensure that all aspects of the assessment document were adhered to, and some of the affected people would actually see their lives improve markedly.
Dr Gwamaka said it was NEMC’s view that most of the  activists “making noise” about the project were based outside Tanzania, and had little or no knowledge of what the project was all about and its anticipated impact.