Kampala,
UGANDA
Six
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) said Wednesday that they had filed a
lawsuit against the French energy giant Total over an oil field project in
Uganda, accusing it of failing to avert "disastrous impacts" for
local residents and biodiversity.
The groups hope the court in Nanterre, outside
Paris, will force Total to conform with a 2017 law requiring it to elaborate a
"vigilance plan" to prevent "serious infringements"
of health and human rights as well as environmental damage.
The French law was passed in the wake of the Rana
Plaza disaster in Bangladesh in 2013, when more than a thousand people were
killed in the collapse of poorly maintained building housing garment companies
working for Western brands.
Total plans to drill 419 wells near Lake Albert in
western Uganda for the Tilenga project, which could produce some 200,000
barrels of crude a day.
Many of the wells will be in the Murchison Falls
national park, and already many communities have been displaced from their
lands.
"The disastrous impacts of this project are
already being felt by thousands of people whose lands and homes have been
confiscated," said Thomas Bart of the French NGO Survie
("Survival").
"Many communities survive
on rearing animals, growing food, and these areas are where we have most of our
national parks... the activities of Total have been really in conflict and in
violation of most of those activities," added Dickens Kamugisha, head of
the Africa Institute for Energy Governance based in Kampala.
"We believe that the justice system in France
is much more strong and independent" than Ugandan courts, he said.
In total, four French NGOs and two based in Uganda
filed the suit.
The Tilenga project was launched after the 2006
discovery of a field that could hold over 1.5 billion barrels of crude, a boon
for Uganda, which hopes to export oil via a pipeline to Tanzania.
Asked for comment on the lawsuit, a Total spokesman
referred to a company statement from September saying the Tilenga impact
studies "were carried out with respect to national and international standards."
It acknowledged that 622 people had been displaced
in a first phase, but said all received either land or money as compensation.
"Total is fully aware of the potential impacts
on local communities. Ongoing transparent dialogue ensures that any concerns
expressed are handled appropriately," it said. - AFP
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