BULIISA – Over 50 Project Affected Persons [PAPs] in Buliisa district who have not taken up their compensation have been given one-month ultimatum to take up the money and vacate the land in the Tilenga Project Area.
The order was issued by the Energy and Mineral Development Minister, Ruth Nankabirwa on Monday as she was monitoring the progress of the oil project.
Government acquired 700 acres of land from 610 households with 4773 residents, where it is going to have an industrial area that will host several oil project facilities after compensation. However, out of 610 households, 58 households have not taken up their compensation for different reasons.
According to Nankabirwa 25 households rejected the compensation on grounds that compensation was not enough to acquire land elsewhere while the 25 others had ownership conflicts and therefore government could not determine who to compensate while six households were not traceable.
Nankabirwa said that failure by these to take up their compensation was frustrating the Tilega project. She noted that the government is giving the affected households until 31 of July to have their money taken, adding that if they fail, the government will deposit their compensation money in court and start using their land.
However, Buliisa district LCV chairman, Fred Lukumu defended the said PAPs, urging government to revise compensation rates for the land and other property in Buliisa district.
He noted that the value of land and other properties in the district has gone so high that the PAPs are unlikely to replace them using the little money government wants to give them.
Meanwhile, Nankabirwa handed over 105 houses to other PAPs in Buliisa district on Monday.
The houses are part of the planned 205 to be built on pieces of land chosen by the PAPs themselves, according to the Director of Social Performance at TotalEnergies, Joy Muballe.
The houses have two to four bedrooms depending on the original structure, a sitting room, a verandah, an outside kitchen, and a solar-powered system. The houses have rainwater harvesting water tanks with a capacity of 5,000 litres and a ventilated improved pit latrine.
Nankabirwa said the houses were constructed after the PAPs opted for relocation, adding that the compensation and handing over the houses is a milestone in the development of the oil industry.
“We promised to implement Uganda’s oil and gas projects while safeguarding the environment and transforming the lives of our people. We shall sustainably exploit Uganda’s resources for social and economic transformation. I hope the world is watching what is happening here,” she said.
She added that the completion and handover of the remaining houses is expected to take place at the end of August 2023, according to the minister.
Tilenga is one of the two upstream oil projects in Lake Albertine [Mwitanzige] operated by French TotalEnergies in Buliisa and Nwoya districts.
The upstream partners include TotalEnergies with a share of 56.67 percent; CNOOC [28.33 percent] and Uganda National Oil Company [UNOC] with 15 percent.
The crude oil will be transported from the oilfields in the mid-western region to the Central Processing Facility [CPF] at Kabaale village in Kabaale Sub-county, Hoima district and then to Tanzania’s Tanga Port on the Indian Ocean. This will be through the 1,443km East African Crude Oil Pipeline [EACOP].
The Tilenga and EACOP projects are situated in a sensitive social and environmental context and require land acquisition programmes with close attention to the rights of the affected communities.
According to TotalEnergies, the completion of the Tilenga and EACOP projects requires the implementation of a land acquisition programme covering some 6,400 hectares, relocating 764 primary residences, and affecting a total of 18,800 stakeholders, landowners and land users.
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