The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) company hopes to start construction works in the second quarter of this year when the compensation and resettlement exercise is expected to end. This will be almost a year since the company applied for the construction license from the government in July last year.
The process was delayed by the complexities in settling the Project Affected Persons, PAPs. Honey Malinga, the Ag. the Director of Petroleum in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, says that the application would be processed within 180 days “in accordance with the law.”
He has urged the company to pay attention and quickly address the persistent concerns raised by the communities, local leadership, government, and civil society. These issues, which include the valuation of the land, and protection of cultural sites, among others, have persisted beyond the 180 days, thus delaying the project, according to Martin Tiffen, the Managing Director at EACOP.
He, however, says that three-quarters of the PAPs have already signed agreements and are being compensated, while the other processes are ongoing including the procurement of contractors.
He was speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between EACOP and the Institution of Surveyors of Uganda, ISU, aimed at enhancing the skills of surveyors through training and other opportunities.
The construction license enables the company to kick-start the development of the 1,443-kilometer heated and underground pipeline from Kabaale in Hoima to Chongoleani in Tanga, Tanzania.
In their view as surveyors, Dr. Nathan Kibwami, the ISU President said the concerns and grievances by the affected communities in many cases also led to increased costs of the properties to be valued because of the process of settling them. He said that the important thing is that there are grievance settlement mechanisms that have been applied to see the process continue.
