EACOP not first pipeline in East Africa
Elison Karuhanga
What you need to know:
Those opposed to this project need to stop with their doomsday claims and made up facts
This has been an interesting month for those following the story of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The Pan-African Parliament declared its support for the project in a strongly worded resolution targeting the colonial resolution of the EU Parliament. The motion was moved by Mr Felix Okot Ogong. Prior to that, the ACP (African Caribbean and Pacific States) EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly rejected a motion calling for “no new fossil fuel projects” and instead adopted a compromise position moved by Tanzania and Barbados.
Ugandan MPs from both the government and Opposition parties were instrumental in defending the country. Kudos especially go to Mr Thomas Tayebwa, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, for leading our team and also to the Members of Parliament who stood tall and proud in defence of Uganda.
The activists will obviously continue to make their case in the corridors of Western power. They will continue to say EACOP is the “longest pipeline” in the World; they shall say it is a “climate bomb” that will pollute the water of “40 million pipeline” and “tear through villages” leaving “hundreds of thousands” of people “homeless”. These claims have all been thoroughly discredited.
This week I had the opportunity to discuss the project with the amiable Abdulsamad Abdulrahim, the visionary and charismatic chairperson of the Association of Tanzania Oil and Gas Services (ATOGS), and the very eloquent and intelligent Tanzanian High Commissioner to Uganda, Aziz Mlima. I learnt a number of incredible things about the upstream oil industry in Tanzania and the incredible opportunities that exist in this region. Tanzania already has another pipeline, the Tazama pipeline. The Tazama is a 1,710km pipeline from Tanzania to Zambia. It is a pipeline with an interesting story. It starts in African revolutionary and liberation movements.
In 1964, Zambia became independent. In 1965, the White settler community in Zimbabwe led by Ian Smith issued the universal declaration of independence where they decided that Zimbabwe would be ruled by the White settler community and denied political and economic rights to the Black citizens of Zimbabwe. The Black political leaders resorted to armed struggle and mobilised support from African countries. One of the biggest supporters of the liberation of Southern Africa in general, and Zimbabwe in particular, was the Kenneth Kaunda-led government of Zambia.
However, Zambia is landlocked and got 90 percent of its oil imports from Zimbabwe. Zambia was also home to the copper belt and at that time supplied 30 percent of all copper on the global market. The copper belts needed oil to run effectively. After Ian Smith took power in Zimbabwe, there were sanctions imposed on that government which in turn blocked all the oil going to Zambia, choking Zambia and the global copper market.
At the same time, the USA urgently needed copper supplies to help support the war effort in Vietnam and so they began airlifting fuel into Zambia’s copper mines. President Kaunda and President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania then resolved to build a pipeline from the port of Dar es Salaam to Ndola in Zambia. This pipeline would carry crude oil. It was named the Tazama Pipeline. (Tanzania Zambia “mafuta” (Oil).) It is a 1,710km oil pipeline. It has seven pump stations that rely on crude oil to power the stations. It passes through the Mikumi National Park in Tanzania, a park that is home to cheetahs, elephants, buffalos and rhinos. The pipeline does pass near some rivers. There have been some oil spills during its time owing to the old nature of the technology but they have not signified the end of Tanzania or Zambia.
The EACOP pipeline will be shorter and built with the latest technology. The six pump stations will either be powered by hydro or solar power, and will have the latest technology in terms of fibre optic cables to monitor the pipeline, safety valves to mention a few.
Those opposed to this project need to stop with their doomsday claims and made up facts. EACOP will not even be the longest pipeline in East Africa.
The writer is an advocate and partner at Kampala Associated Advocates
