Devil’s Cauldron at Murchison must not be killed in our name

Some things are simply off-limits in decent society. Things like marriage between parent and child.
Even amoral governments (should) have no-go areas — like broadcasting whose house, office or car the intelligence services plan to bug.
We are at a moment, however. Our government has no taboos in the way it is managing resources on behalf of Ugandans. It continues to view development in the narrow terms of building new, visible things: roads, ferries, railways, airports, dams. Damn everything else. No wonder, despite a rich cultural and political history, the only museum we have is largely a natural history one built by the colonialists. No wonder, there is no State support for the arts, the creative economy, yet State officials routinely complain that the youth are not job-creators.
It has taken the support of donors for us to even begin to list buildings of historical importance.

No surprise then that a thing of magnificence like Murchison Falls, the epicentre of the Murchison Falls Conservation Area, can be trifled with. The waterfalls and the Lake Albert Delta — a Ramsar site that is home to the elusive Shoebill Stork — are such formidable natural features that to mess with them for a dam that has a limited lifespan is moronic. It is criminal.

You can behold the falls from the comfort of your boat down below, or you can hike and get up-close. Or better still you can approach them from the top. On site, you will very likely be told of something named the Devil’s Cauldron. As the rocks press the water into an 8-metre wide space and then let go, other rocks stand in the way, creating a bounce that generates “wet smoke” and a cheery rainbow. The angry bounce creates a massive churn and roar that is probably of biblical proportions. That’s the Devil’s Cauldron. That is what electricity regulator ERA and other crazies want to kill to generate a few hundred megawatts of hydroelectricity.
The intending developer, Bonang Power and Energy from South Africa — very likely being fronted by the usual well-connected gangs looking for commissions — must withdraw its interest in the site.

The current number of dams and those already identified along the Nile and elsewhere are enough. If not, let’s look to other renewable sources. How about putting more energy and resources in the very promising geothermal sub-sector? Solar is coming along at a good clip. Fuel it.
Even if Bonang and its blood-sucking enablers in government get their way, Bonang will never have peace. Its officers will never have the social licence, the acceptance of the general population, to run the dam. They are damned from the start. Besides, why not help South Africa with its rolling power blackouts? There is enough work over there. Stay there.

Despite the widespread outrage, ERA is acting so blasé. Officers there think the public anger against the dam is mere social media bubble. It will rise and dissipate and they will do their damned thing. It is unlikely that ERA is proceeding without a nod from on high, probably as high as State House. They are miscalculating. If Mabira 2007 never taught anyone in government a lesson, the damming of Murchison Falls may do it. Yet, back then, apart from email listservs, there was no social media to quickly and potently organise and galvanise resistance.
The regulator may quote section upon section of the law. That is beside the point. The point is that Ugandans are saying the very idea of damming those waterfalls is taboo and should never have been entertained at all. Bonang should have been told: no, the falls are not one of those areas you can ever consider for a dam.

In its mental recesses, however, ERA actually welcomes the idea that we could have a dam at Murchison Falls. So it wants to hear the pros and cons. There are, however, no pros and cons. Period.
President Museveni is making a thundering mistake. Should the battle lines get drawn, it will be The People versus The Leader. The People will win even if The Leader is Sabalwanyi, General of Generals.

Bernard Tabaire is a media trainer and commentator on public affairs based in Kampala.
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Twitter:@btabaire