The Observer - Nwoya, Buliisa residents live in fear of oil waste

Written by Edward Ssekika

Thursday, 20 February 2014 22:11

With evidence of unauthorized disposal, could Uganda be sitting on a time bomb?

Last year, government awarded its first production licence to the China National Offshore Oil
Corporation (Cnooc). The award signifies that the country is moving from oil exploration to
production and is soon expected to join a coveted list of oil-producing countries.

However, unlike in the exploration phase, production comes with a lot of waste, with potential to
pollute the fragile ecosystem if not properly handled. This has prompted debate on how the
waste is being handled.

There are cases of illegal disposal, and accusations that oil companies are hiring unlicensed
companies to transport and store oil waste. Some analysts are warning that oil waste
management or mismanagement will make or break Ugandas petroleum industry.

In this three-part series, Edward Ssekika finds out how the oil waste is being handled and
explores the history and evidence of continued dumping.
When in 2009, Heritage Oil illegally buried truckloads of oil waste in Nwoya county, in the then
Amuru district, little did the country know that it was the beginning of a bigger oil waste
management crisis. Five years later, the oil frontline districts of Buliisa and Nwoya continue to
witness other incidents of oil waste dumping.

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The Observer - Nwoya, Buliisa residents live in fear of oil waste

Written by Edward Ssekika
Thursday, 20 February 2014 22:11

Okumu Oryem, the Nwoya district chairman, notes that oil waste is sometimes dumped on
peoples land with neither the consent of the National Environment Management Authority
(Nema) nor land owners.

Oil waste is being thrown everywhere in the district, which is putting the lives of our people at
risk, Okumu says. His assertions are fortified by vivid cases of unauthorized dumping that have
remained stuck in peoples memories here.

No pearl
Mid last year, Peal Engineering company was reported to have dumped oil waste on someones
land without consent in Padit East LC-I, Padit East village, Purungo sub-county, Nwoya district.
However, Total E&P Uganda, the main operator in the area, downplayed it, arguing that what
was dumped in Padit was simply murram which was being used in construction of drill pads.

Before Total could fully explain the Padit dumping, liquid oil waste was deposited at Wiamono
trading centre by Epsilon, another Total-contracted company. There are also reports that when
Neptune Oils licence expired last year and it abandoned its Rhino camp, the company had
abandoned waste in Aviv1one of its two dry wells and the area is yet to be cleared.

In Buliisa, Saracen, a security company that provides security to Tullow camps, was also
reported to have been involved in dumping last year. The company allegedly dumped domestic
waste from its camp in Kisimo cell, Buliisa town council, instead of transporting the waste to the
neighbouring Hoima district where it was supposed to be disposed of.

Bill Pelser, the managing director Saracen, regrets the dumping, telling The Observer recently:
It was unfortunate; we cleaned it up and apologised to the affected communities.

Douglas Oluoch, a peasant farmer in Purungo village, Nwoya district, on whose land Heritage
buried oil waste, says he has spent five years in community isolation due to oil waste. Oluoch
was given Shs 750,000 to allow the company bury the oil waste it had generated from
exploration activities on his land.

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The Observer - Nwoya, Buliisa residents live in fear of oil waste

Written by Edward Ssekika
Thursday, 20 February 2014 22:11

He says he has been isolated in the village, because many think the waste that was buried is
toxic and has since contaminated his land.

I cant sell any produce from my land; people think it is toxic, he says. Tired of isolation, he
now appeals to either oil companies or government to buy his piece so that he can relocate to
another area.

In Nwoya, where most of the dumping has occurred, it is blamed on French oil giant Total E&P,
the main player here, that contracts small companies to transport and store drill waste from
exploration sites to waste consolidation sites. Many of these firms, to cut their commercial
costs, dump waste wherever they can find space, leaving communities worried.

Robert Byaruhanga, an environmentalist and a programme officer at the African Institute for
Energy Governance (Afiego), notes that despite concerted efforts by government and oil
companies to properly manage oil waste, incidents of dumping show the need to do more.

Oil waste, he stresses, poses a big threat to the fragile ecosystem and tourism in the Albertine
rift. In 2012, Nema issued oil waste management guidelines, hinged on proper categorization of
waste. Toxic waste is supposed to be kept in consolidation camps until government finds a
scientific and environmentally-friendly mode of disposal.

Therefore, liquid or solid drill waste generated in exploration is transported and stored at the
different waste consolidation sites. Some of these sites include Tangi in Nwoya, Ngara 1 and
Kisinja in Buliisa.

Worried
Ngara waste consolidation site, is one of the largest approximately the size of a football pitch.
Here, solid waste is kept differently from liquid. At one corner, there is a heap of solid waste
covered with thick polythene material. Another corner has a rectangular, fenced-off, cemented
pit of liquid waste, under an iron roof. Another small pit is surrounded with polythene material
but not covered.

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The Observer - Nwoya, Buliisa residents live in fear of oil waste

Written by Edward Ssekika
Thursday, 20 February 2014 22:11

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Make or break

Dr Gerald Sawula Musoke, the deputy executive director of Nema, says the success or failure of
the oil sector in Uganda will largely depend on the way the country manages its oil waste. Citing
the example of Nigeria, Musoke says if oil waste is poorly managed, it will lead to pollution and
destruction of the ecosystem, something that can spell doom for the country.

Poorly-managed toxic waste, coupled with other usual oil disasters like spills and blowouts, can
find its way in water sources like streams and finally end up in Lake Albert, something that can
harm the fishing industry. Nigerias name never misses whenever the issue of the oil curse
comes up, partly due to poor waste management, spills and blowouts.

These have caused severe pollution in the Niger Delta, wiping out the Ogoni lands ecosystem,
contaminating water sources and ruining agriculture.

In his book, A Month And A Day: A Detention Diary, the Nigerian writer and environmental
activist Ken Saro-Wiwa recounts the impact of unchecked oil exploitation on the environment in
his native Ogoni land: Oil has turned Ogoni into a waste land: Lands, streams are totally and
continually polluted; the atmosphere has been poisoned, charged as it is with hydrocarbon
vapours. Acid rain, oil spillages and oil blowouts have devastated Ogoni territory The results
of such unchecked environmental pollution and degradation include the complete destruction of
the ecosystem, Saro-Wiwa wrote.

The outspoken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni environmental activists were in 1995 hanged
after a military trial for their activism. Due to the prolonged and unchecked oil exploitation
Saro-Wiwa further notes, Ogoni had no piped water and yet streams, the only source of drinking
water, are coated with oil.

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The Observer - Nwoya, Buliisa residents live in fear of oil waste

Written by Edward Ssekika
Thursday, 20 February 2014 22:11

You cannot collect a bucket of rainwater from the roofs; trees and grass all covered with oil.
Men and women forced by hunger have to dig deep in oil to uproot already rotten yams and
cassava, he wrote.

A few days before he was hanged, Saro-Wiwa, in an interview with UKs Channel 4 radio, said:
What used to be a bread basket of the Delta [Ogoni land] has now become polluted and
infertile. All one sees and feels around is death. Environmental degradation has been a lethal
weapon in the war against the indigenous Ogoni people, he said.

Although what Saro-Wiwa describes in his book and later in the interview are far from what is
happening in Uganda, the country needs to take a serious lesson. Nkuba notes that though
Uganda has not reached this level, unchecked disposal of waste is pointing to a worrying trend.
So, the country needs to learn fast from the mistakes of others.

People living around the Niger Delta suffer from skin lesions and respiratory disease as well as
cancer associated with pollution. Therefore, oil waste management requires a sober and
scientific approach, because environmental dimension, mainly pollution, could be a curse to the
future generations.
ssekika@observer.ug
In the second part of our series, we reveal how oil companies are hiring unlicensed firms to
transport and store oil waste and the risks such cutting corners practices poses for the country.
This Observer feature is published in partnership with Panos Eastern Africa, with funding from
the European Unions Media for Democratic Governance and Accountability Project.

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