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Special report Oil and natural gas exploration in East Africa
Thembi Mutch
20th May , 2013
The disconnect between what oil and petrol companies say is happening in East Africa and what global bodies, international NGOs, academics, activists and ecologists say is going on should worry us all, writes Thembi Mutch
We've already done a great deal of damage, and appear to have learnt little. A recent (October 2010) UNEP report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), put the damage done to the natural world by human activity in 2008 at between US$2 trillion (£1.3 trillion) and US$4.5 trillion (£3 trillion).
It's really important we don't screw up in East Africa, and it's vital we draw attention to the people and organisations who are pushing the agenda in the right direction. We cannot go on wilfully ignoring the voices – whether of the UN, the IUCN, activists against Canadian tar sands and in the Niger Delta, Ghana and Angola who have to some extent seen it all before, or of informed academics – who are seriously sounding the alarm.
This is not an oblique problem: how oil and natural gas are extracted in Africa has direct impacts on our lives. Because if we exacerbate social inequality and rifts and misunderstandings in religion, destroy valuable livelihoods and take away people's sense of control and responsibility, we create the conditions for war, globally.
In Europe we are switching from coal to natural gas, fed by exploration (now over 50 years old) in East Africa: presently we export little of East Africa's gas (about 1%), but all agree it will definitely rise. Eighteen companies are involved in the 27 offshore coastal areas, in South Kenya, Tanzania and North Mozambique.
The companies include BG Group, Statoil (which is a 40% shareholder of Exxon), KPMG, Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko, Petrobras, Ophir Energy, OriginOil, Total, BP and Aminex. With only 500 wells drilled so far (compared to West and North Africa's 35,000), the US geological survey estimates the volume of gas reserves alone at 441 trillion cubic feet. Petroleum reserves are estimated at 600,000 barrels a day.
In East Africa the debate is finally taking off: on the one hand, these resources could be the answer for the modernisation so desperately needed in Tanzania and East Africa. (The UK Department for International Development is spending £161 million per year until 2015 on its programme of support to Tanzania.)
At the same time, and not coincidentally, the East African media is catching on to the fact that vulnerable marine environments need attention: building a port in or right next to a marine park is not OK. Positioning an oil rig or fracking in a marine park is not acceptable. However, there are other issues – corruption, the militarisation of areas of extraction, and the impact on local communities – that need serious scrutiny.
Highlighting the debates around oil exploration (let alone reaching consensus on solutions) is highly problematic. Part of it is just the logistical clash of a first-world oil company trying to do business with highly undeveloped economies. Emails sent from London to Dar es Salaam, where the electricity has been off for days, disappear into the ether.
At a different level, the contracts awarded to oil companies are often complicated and written behind closed doors. Information is withheld, sometimes because the mechanisms for distributing it don't exist, sometimes because there's no desire to do so and no culture of dissemination. Thus plans in East Africa for the development of refineries, electricity-processing plants and roads are murky; the websites of BG, Andarko and Statoil are full of rhetoric and lacking evidence.
Wheels within wheels and existing rent-seeking behaviours mean it's hard to get a clear sense of the truth or of who is being more manipulated. There are no clear baddies: for example in Southern Tanzania the government labour office has cottoned on to the big payouts possible due to unfair labour practices.
Local sources report that they are approached and encouraged to complain, even if they are blatantly wrong, in order to leach big payouts from the oil companies; the labour office is in on the deal. In fact some of the oil companies are bending over backwards to try and implement better practices, but fail to do so because of endemic corruption at grassroots level, or entrenched practices of jobs for party apparatchiks.
According to the activist group Platform, which works globally, including in Uganda and DRC, perceptions (in the global North) of corruption tend to be quite naive. Platform believes that it's the increasing militarisation, from private militias to protect foreign staff to an overuse of the navy in East Africa, that remains the issue. And of course the total lack of accountability: of governments in the region to their citizens, and of oil companies to the people who live in oil and gas areas.
According to Platform, Heritage Oil is owned and managed by an ex-mercenary, Tony Buckingham. Thus even if schools and health facilities are built as sops, it is the effective militarisation of development that is highly troubling.
Some of the existing rigs – in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda – are clearly in hot spots, where there have already been deaths and violence sparked over access to resources. These could be dismissed as ‘tribal' conflicts. They are not: they are fights about access to land, minerals or the right to farm as pastoralists. In Uganda, for example, three British firms – Tullow Oil, Tower and Dominion – are exploring the Albertine Rift, a lake area, where 3.5 billion barrels of oil have already been discovered. This is a vulnerable area of skirmishes with DRC rebels: over 100 people have been kidnapped there in attacks linked to conflicts over ransoms, minerals and oil.
In Mombasa and Lamu (both exploration areas) there have been four deaths (reported in local media) in connection with secession issues and the area being marginalised from the capital; introducing further wealth inequities will not improve this. In Nigeria the deaths in the river state – where oil exploration is central – are numerous and extremely hard to catalogue specifically, according to activists there.
However, there have been successes. In Uganda particularly, the Civil Society Coalition for Oil (CSCO) is vociferous, organised and focused. According to Tony Otoa, its executive coordinator, many groups, including WWF, International Alert, Kitara Heritage Development Agency, and Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, spend time and energy engaging with local communities and incorporating them in the ongoing discussions.
Publish What You Pay (Uganda chapter) is making strides calling for transparency in the oil sector, and one of the most prominent demands in the CSCO comments on the 2012 Petroleum Bills was that the Ugandan government embrace the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
In Tanzania as well there is a groundswell of interested parties willing to be vocal. In autumn 2012, three NGOs in Tanzania – the Legal and Human Rights Centre, Sikika (‘To Be Heard') and HakiElimu (‘Rights Education') – asked for five key points to be addressed, including the way in which contracts and licences are awarded, how Tanzania is prepared to regulate and monitor the oil and gas sector, and how the country plans to work on the issue of collection of taxes and royalties.
The management and allocation of these generated revenues and a broader discussion of the implementation of sustainable development policies and projects are also called for.
Mzee Kiria, Executive Director of Sikika, says: "A review of the whole value chain of gas and oil exploitation must be supported by transparent and participatory processes. We think, as a country, we need to suspend issuance of new licences until we find credible answers to these issues. All Tanzanians should be involved in the process of getting responses to these questions."
From 24 September 2012 new licences in Tanzania have been suspended.
Several consultants involved in the oil and gas industry are willing to offer their opinions off the record. All are aware that the oil industry is a serious player: $US2.1 trillion is needed for investment in African oil and gas supply infrastructure (refineries, roads, whole towns, ports) between 2010 and 2035.
Consultants are contractually bound not to talk about what they are doing, and are scared to bite the hand that feeds them. One told me: "It's too early to say; what we do know is that most of East Africa has no regulatory frameworks in place for oil and mineral resources exploitation. Or if they have, there is an abject lack of willpower to implement them. Selous in Tanzania, the Albertine Rift and Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda, and Virunga National Park in Rwanda have all had environmental assessments or management plans which have not been adhered to or implemented. They sit on shelves, unread.
We need to disincentivise corruption, prevent rent-seeking behaviours, arrest people, sort out our judicial system, and make it unviable to undertake short-term corrupt behaviours." In Kenya the environmental management studies associated with the Lapsett pipeline, the Mwambani port in Tanga Marine Park and Lake Natron have been completely leapfrogged. The debate over how ‘clean' natural/shale gas is (remember how difficult it is to pursue ‘neutral' science) is still going on.
On the ground, this lack of regulation has real impacts, real consequences. No environmental assessments are in the public domain. On paper there are corporate social responsibility brochures and people employed to implement social consultations. Certainly in Mtwara, Mikindani, Lindi and Kilwa (in coastal Southern Tanzania, close to the border with Mozambique), local populations are anxious to understand whether oil and natural gas revenues will add valuable capital for modernising, or whether they will distort and destroy an already fragile situation.
The bus station in Mikindani is a desolate, depressed place, lost and forgotten by the capital, 650km away. The local people do not have work, and are still waiting to be paid for their last seasons' cashew crops. "When they find oil or gas here, only the rich will eat," says one man, unemployed for the last two years.
In the East African coastal region there are some dirty secrets. Employment and livelihoods are in a mess: the coastal fishing communities dynamite up to four times an hour in the bay at Mtwara, and the oil platform there is drilling right next door to a marine park famous for sea horses and turtles.
Yet all attempts to find evidence of assessments, of consultations conducted on the ground by the companies drilling, led nowhere. All promises to send plans and consultations went unfulfilled. Unbelievably, my own investigations, over a cumulative nine months based in the region, yielded nothing. The overall message from local people I spoke to is that they don't really know what's going on, and they're not getting the jobs, even menial ones as security personnel, because they're not qualified enough.
The consequences of this are dire. Professor Marc Kochzius of Brussels University comments: "Compromising this natural capital of living resources by uncontrolled oil and gas exploitation that damages or destroys these ecosystems will have undesired and severe socio-economic consequences. If coastal habitats can no longer support subsistence fisheries, a large part of the coastal population will lose their main source of animal protein, since fishing is the only possibility for poor people to meet their requirements."
There is a need for power, and natural gas and oil can provide this, but only if it's regulated, monitored, and done carefully. The population density in Tanzania generally is so low, and building transmission networks of power cables so expensive, that most people will remain off-grid for the next generation, according to Erica Mackey of Tanzanian company Off.Grid:Electric.
For these people (over 90% of rural Tanzania is off-grid) a decentralised renewable energy solution is the best or only way: solar for lighting and mobile phones/computers/TVs, and biogas for cooking (for those who have cows). The current plans seem to be top-heavy, with national capitals retaining control over both natural gas revenues and supply. Oliver Kynaston of Tanzania-based Shamba Technologies comments: "The Tanzanian population have a long way to go before they compete with their European or American counterparts in terms of CO2 per capita."
In Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania, oil and natural gas drilling will take place in national parks and UN World Heritage Sites. The governments are the first to privately admit that they can't effectively manage the burgeoning development pressures. Dr Dembe, a senior Tanzanian National Parks Association official, points out: "The challenges between wildlife, resources and extraction are not simple problems, and adding resource extraction into this complicates it all. I am worried we do not have the capacity, the leadership and the politicians to do this properly."
There should be money for environmental research and support for communities. Every oil company working in Tanzania has to donate US$100,000 a year to central government as a basic registration fee. And as a result of the lessons learned in gold mining, the Tanzanian government is asking for 60% of all gas revenues. However, the financial mechanisms in East Africa for keeping account of the revenues are deliberately vague: only companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (in the USA) are required to submit financial reports – which leaves the Italian, Brazilian and British firms exempt.
Even then, it is easy, as has already happened in Uganda, for local ministers and judges to ensure that disclosure of documents relating to oil is kept out of the public sphere. The veteran Oilwatch activist Nnimmo Bassey comments: "The ultimate solution is not transparency in the petroleum sector: you simply will not get it. The sector will not agree to pay environmental costs that they externalise. The ultimate solution is to leave the oil in the soil."
Open Society Fellow and journalist Angelo Izama is more sanguine: he views oil and gas through the lens of state building, and sees that in this one Kenya will triumph. Its impressive and robust media landscape and articulate politicised populations are demanding, and rightly so.
This is not the case in Tanzania yet. The Tanzanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, William Ngeleja, announced in March 2012 that Petrobras, Motherland Industries and Heritage Rukwa (from Brazil, India and the UK, respectively) would be granted licences to explore for 11 years. In his and every other government press release in the East African media there was no mention of the issues alarming WWF East Africa and IUCN. There are over 220 Red List species in regions earmarked for oil and natural gas drilling. Specialists highlight the threatened status of seagrass, coastal mangroves, dugongs, coelacanths, sea turtles, mantas and the pristine areas of coral that range over thousands of miles along this East African coastline.
The World Resources Institute, UNESCO World Heritage, IUCN and savvy divers point to this area as comprising some of the most complex and fascinating marine systems in the world. The humble, unassuming seagrass beds are extremely important as feeding grounds and nursery areas for many species from many habitats, and play a considerable part in preventing erosion.
These are not biological sideshows, or the whimsy of scientists in European hothouses. These are a vital part of the oceans' ability to support life, to maintain oxygen in our atmosphere, and to support a range of other resources. The temptation is to be vague, to think that oil and gas are central to our existences. They are not: in plain terms, we must recognise that in the competition for resources, we are allowing oil and gas corporate multinationals to win the race, and to starve us into submission, literally. Kochzius says: "Protecting coastal habitats, such as coral reefs, seagrasses and mangroves, is a vital interest of East African nations, because these habitats support the livelihood of local communities. The resulting socio-economic costs for the East African nations might exceed the benefit gained from this oil and gas exploitation."
Are we in East Africa suffering a form of amnesia? The fallacy of sustainable fossil fuels and the over-consumption of oil – which lies at the root of modernity – goes largely unquestioned, particularly by East African media and electorates. Climate change is already well documented in Africa, but the waste created from mining, including oil and natural gas, is not. According to a report from Friends of the Earth Europe in 2007, "The total weight of all the materials extracted around the world amounted to 60 billion tonnes, equivalent to 25kg/day for each person on the planet.
To this figure must be added more than 40 billion tonnes of materials removed from the soil surface but not used in production processes themselves, such as ‘overburden' from mining activities. (‘Overburden' is the term used to describe the ecosystem – the rocks, vegetation, soil – that lies above a coal seam or ore body, also called ‘waste' or ‘spoil' in the industry. According to Mining Journal, 50 billion tonnes of earth is moved every year by mining activities, 21 billion tonnes of which is wasted.)"
Bassey comments: "I'm sure there are communities in Tanzania and Kenya that have swallowed the tales from the oil industry and the government. That was the situation in Nigeria 54 years ago, in Uganda, in Ghana. Now we know better. Most communities are already seeing the bare fangs of the industry. Fossil-fuel civilisation has reached its dead end. Anything further just means going over the precipice."
Comparisons with the Niger Delta situation are complicated by the presence of illegal oil wells (‘bunkering'), exploitation of existing ethnic hatreds by interested parties, spurious factual data (often gathered with specific agendas in mind), and the corruption that dominated the country prior to 1999. The use of flaring, and the failure to follow up on the two major oil spills in August and December 2008 in the Niger Delta (where the volume of oil spilt was as large as that spilt by the Exxon Valdez oil tanker in Alaska in 1989) have angered campaigners.
"The Exxon Valdez accident is considered one of the worst environmental disasters of all time," says Bassey. "Why has the environmental disaster in the Niger Delta never reached the same level of relevance? The deafening silence over this level of ecological assault makes some of us reach the conclusion that human and environmental rights are only important when they are breached in rich, powerful countries. No questions asked. It is a replay of the abuses entrenched from the colonial past, the ugly face of imperialism."
In Europe and Africa, The Green Belt Movement (GBM) has been watching with concern oil exploration and discovery in East Africa in recent years. Francesca de Gasparis of GBM Europe notes: "The actions of oil companies elsewhere around the world do not suggest strong environmental stewardship or foresight. The gulf spill in 2010 and the current push for Arctic drilling despite the hugely negative potential environmental impacts show that when spills happen it is the environment and local communities that ultimately pay the price."
We are all owed more intelligent options than just fossil-based modernisation plans devised by oil executives sitting in 25th-floor offices with views of Amsterdam, Dublin, Manhattan or Tower Bridge. East Africa should not be denied the right to modernise, but oil and natural gas exploration must only continue if accurate, scientifically tight, historically informed and contextually accurate environmental and social factors are included, and made public. Wind farms are currently being built in Uganda and Kenya. Why are they not receiving the same level of subsidies, support and enthusiasm?
We need to know more about soils, water tables and erosion and ensure that communities who steward or rely on valuable environmental assets take ownership of them. We need input from organisations like Farm Africa, Nobel Women's Initiative, Sikika, Twaweza (‘We Can Make It Happen'), Tanzanian Natural Resources Forum, Platform, the Green Belt Movement and a host of other civil society initiatives, which understand and know how to consult local communities. Then we can have fruitful connections, discussions about railways built right across from Central Africa to the coast, and ports and exploration platforms right next to marine parks and inside national parks.
We need to talk about how natural gas and oil distort economies: about the thousands of farmers who will die if their crops are deprived of water, and the fishermen who will continue to dynamite protected Indian Ocean coral reefs if they can't line fish because they are competing with exploration rigs, super trawlers or fracking outfits. Fragmented, inaccurate and obscure information about the environment needs to be actively reworked and explained to East Africa's citizens. If we are serious about the Millennium Development Goals, then we need to thread them into some of the core issues of Africa's development: and those include oil and gas exploration.
Thembi Mutch is a freelance journalist based in Tanzania. This is the full version of a special report that was also published in Resurgence & Ecologist magazine January/February 2013 issue www.resurgence.org
NIMEJARIBU KU-TRANSLATE... SOMA CHINI kwa KISWAHILI...
Ripoti Maalumu ya Mafuta na utafutaji wa gesi asilia katika Afrika Mashariki
Thembi Mutch
Mei 20, 2013
kukatwa kati ya yale mafuta ya petroli na makampuni ya kusema kinachotokea katika Afrika Mashariki na yale ya kimataifa miili, NGOs za kimataifa, wasomi, wanaharakati na mazingira katika kusema kinachoendelea lazima wasiwasi sisi wote, anaandika Thembi Mutch
Tumekuwa tayari amefanya mpango mkubwa wa uharibifu, na kuonekana wamejifunza kidogo. hivi karibuni (Oktoba 2010) UNEP ripoti, Uchumi wa Ecosystems na Bioanuwai (TEEB), kuweka na uharibifu uliofanywa katika ulimwengu wa asili na shughuli za binadamu katika 2008 saa kati ya Marekani $ 2000000000000 (£ 1300000000000) na Marekani $ 4500000000000 (£ 3000000000000 ).
Ni kweli ni muhimu hatuna screw up katika Afrika Mashariki, na ni muhimu sisi kuteka makini na watu na mashirika ambao ni kusukuma ajenda katika mwelekeo sahihi. Hatuwezi kwenda juu ya makusudi kupuuza sauti - wawe wa Umoja wa Mataifa, IUCN, wanaharakati dhidi ya maelfu ya Canada lami na katika Niger Delta, Ghana na Angola ambao kwa kiasi fulani kuona yote kabla, au wa wasomi wa habari - ambao ni umakini sounding kengele.
Hii si tatizo oblique: jinsi ya mafuta na gesi asilia ni kuondolewa katika Afrika ina athari ya moja kwa moja juu ya maisha yetu. Kwa sababu kama sisi kuzidisha kukosekana kwa usawa wa kijamii na madonda na kutoelewana katika dini, kuharibu maisha ya thamani na kuchukua hisia za watu wa udhibiti na wajibu, sisi kujenga mazingira kwa ajili ya vita, kimataifa.
Katika Ulaya sisi ni byte kutoka makaa ya mawe na gesi asilia, kulishwa na utafutaji (sasa zaidi ya miaka 50) katika Afrika Mashariki: sasa sisi nje kidogo ya gesi ya Afrika Mashariki (juu ya 1%), lakini wote wanakubaliana ni dhahiri kuongezeka. Makampuni kumi na nane ni kushiriki katika maeneo 27 offshore pwani, katika Afrika ya Kenya, Tanzania na Amerika ya Msumbiji.
makampuni ni pamoja na BG Group, Statoil (ambayo ni mbia 40% ya Exxon), KPMG, Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko, Petrobras, Ophir Nishati, OriginOil, Jumla, BP na Aminex. 500 tu na visima drilled hadi sasa (ikilinganishwa na 35,000 Magharibi na Amerika ya Kusini), utafiti wa kijiolojia Marekani makadirio ya kiasi cha akiba ya gesi peke yake miguuni 441000000000000 ujazo. Akiba ya mafuta ya petroli inakadiriwa kuwa mapipa 600,000 kwa siku.
Katika Afrika ya Mashariki mjadala ni hatimaye kuchukua mbali: kwa upande mmoja, rasilimali hizi inaweza kuwa jibu kwa ajili ya kisasa hivyo inahitajika mno katika Tanzania na Afrika Mashariki. (Idara ya Uingereza ya Maendeleo ya Kimataifa ni matumizi ya £ 161,000,000 kwa mwaka hadi mwaka 2015 juu ya mpango wake wa msaada kwa Tanzania).
Wakati huo huo, na si kwa bahati, Afrika Mashariki vyombo vya habari ni kuambukizwa juu na ukweli kwamba mazingira magumu mazingira ya bahari yanapaswa kuangaliwa: kujenga bandari katika au haki ya karibu na Hifadhi ya baharini si sawa. Nafasi rig mafuta au fracking katika Hifadhi ya baharini haikubaliki. Hata hivyo, kuna masuala mengine - rushwa, ya kijeshi katika maeneo ya uchimbaji, na athari kwa jamii - kwamba wanahitaji kuangaliwa zaidi.
Kuonyesha mijadala kuzunguka utafutaji mafuta (achilia kufikia makubaliano juu ya ufumbuzi) ni yenye matatizo. Sehemu yake ni clash ya vifaa ya kampuni ya kwanza ya dunia ya mafuta ya kujaribu kufanya biashara na uchumi yenye changa. Barua pepe kutumwa kutoka London na Dar es Salaam, ambapo umeme imekuwa mbali kwa siku, kutoweka katika ether.
Katika ngazi mbalimbali, zabuni zinazotolewa kwa makampuni ya mafuta mara nyingi ni ngumu na kuandikwa nyuma ya milango imefungwa. Habari ni wakaficha, wakati mwingine kwa sababu mifumo ya kusambaza ni hayapo, wakati mwingine kwa sababu hakuna haja ya kufanya hivyo na hakuna utamaduni wa usambazaji. Hivyo katika Afrika Mashariki mipango ya maendeleo ya Refineries, mitambo ya umeme-usindikaji na barabara ni usaha; tovuti ya BG, Andarko na Statoil ni kamili ya maneno matupu na kukosa ushahidi.
Magurudumu ndani ya magurudumu na zilizopo tabia kodi ya kutafuta maana ni vigumu kupata hisia ya wazi ya ukweli au ya ambaye ni kuwa zaidi manipulated. Hakuna baddies wazi: kwa mfano katika Kusini mwa Tanzania kazi wa serikali ofisi ina cottoned kwenye payouts kubwa inawezekana kutokana na mazoea ya haki za kazi.
Vyanzo vya ndani ripoti kwamba ni akakaribia na moyo wa kulalamika, hata kama ni blatantly vibaya, ili Leach kubwa payouts kutoka makampuni ya mafuta; ofisi za kazi ni katika juu ya mpango huo. Kwa kweli baadhi ya makampuni ya mafuta ni bending juu ya nyuma na kujaribu na kutekeleza mbinu bora, lakini kushindwa kufanya hivyo kwa sababu ya rushwa imeenea katika ngazi ya chini, au mazoea mwiko mkubwa wa ajira kwa vigogo wa chama.
Kwa mujibu wa kundi mwanaharakati Jukwaa, ambayo inafanya kazi kimataifa, ikiwa ni pamoja na katika Uganda na DRC, mitizamo (katika Amerika ya kimataifa) ya rushwa huwa na kuwa kabisa wasiojua. Jukwaa anaamini kwamba ni kuzidi kupanua jeshi, kutoka wanamgambo binafsi kulinda wafanyakazi wa kigeni overuse ya Navy katika Afrika Mashariki, kwamba bado suala hilo. Na bila shaka ukosefu jumla ya uwajibikaji: ya serikali katika kanda wananchi wao, na wa makampuni ya mafuta ya watu ambao wanaishi katika maeneo ya mafuta na gesi.
Kwa mujibu wa Jukwaa, Heritage Oil inamilikiwa na kusimamiwa na ex-mamluki, Tony Buckingham. Hivyo hata kama shule na vituo vya afya ni kujengwa kama SOPs, ni jeshi madhubuti ya maendeleo kwamba ni yenye kumsumbua.
Baadhi ya rigs zilizopo - Tanzania, Kenya na Uganda - ni wazi katika matangazo ya moto, ambapo kuna tayari vifo na ghasia zilizotokana juu ya upatikanaji wa rasilimali. Haya inaweza kuwa kufukuzwa kazi kama migogoro ya 'kikabila'. Wao si: wao ni mabishano juu ya upatikanaji wa ardhi, madini au haki ya shamba kama wafugaji. Nchini Uganda, kwa mfano, tatu British makampuni - Tullow Oil, mnara na Utawala - ni kuchunguza la Ufa Albertine, eneo la ziwa, ambapo mapipa bilioni 3.5 ya mafuta tayari kugundua. Hili ni eneo hatari ya mapigano na waasi DRC: zaidi ya watu 100 wamekuwa nyara huko katika mashambulizi ya wanaohusishwa na migogoro juu ya fidia, madini na mafuta.
Katika Mombasa na Lamu (maeneo ya utafutaji wote) kumekuwa na wanne vifo (ilivyoripotiwa katika vyombo vya habari vya ndani) kuhusiana na masuala ya secession na eneo kuwa pembezoni kutoka mji mkuu; kuanzisha kukosekana kwa usawa utajiri zaidi si kuboresha hii. Nchini Nigeria vifo katika hali mto - ambapo utafutaji mafuta ni kati - ni nyingi na ngumu sana kwa catalog hasa, kulingana na wanaharakati huko.
Hata hivyo, kumekuwa na mafanikio. Nchini Uganda hasa, Mashirika ya Kiraia ya Mafuta (CSCO) ni ukitoa sauti kubwa, kupangwa na umakini. Kulingana na Tony Otoa, mratibu wake mtendaji, makundi mengi, ikiwa ni pamoja na WWF ya Kimataifa Alert, Kitara Heritage Shirika la Maendeleo la, na Advocates Coalition kwa ajili ya Maendeleo na Mazingira, kutumia muda na nishati kujihusisha na jamii na kuchanganya yao katika majadiliano yanayoendelea.
Kuchapisha What You Kulipa (Uganda sura) ni kufanya jitihada wito kwa uwazi katika sekta ya mafuta, na moja ya mahitaji ya wengi maarufu katika maoni juu ya CSCO 2012 Miswada Petroli ni kwamba serikali ya Uganda kukumbatia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Tanzania pia kuna kirefu ya nia ya vyama tayari kuwa mijadala. Katika msimu 2012, NGO tatu katika Tanzania - Sheria na Haki za Binadamu Centre, Sikika ('Kuwa Heard') na HakiElimu ('Elimu ya Haki') - aliuliza kwa pointi tano muhimu ya kushughulikiwa, ikiwa ni pamoja na njia ambayo mikataba na leseni ni tuzo, jinsi ya Tanzania iko tayari kusimamia na kufuatilia sekta ya mafuta na gesi, na jinsi gani nchi mipango ya kazi juu ya suala la ukusanyaji wa kodi na mirahaba.
usimamizi na ugawaji wa mapato haya yanayotokana na majadiliano mapana ya utekelezaji wa sera za maendeleo endelevu na miradi pia kuitwa kwa ajili ya.
Mzee Kiria, Mkurugenzi Mtendaji wa Sikika, anasema: "mapitio ya mlolongo mzima thamani ya unyonyaji gesi na mafuta lazima mkono na michakato ya uwazi na shirikishi. Tunadhani, kama nchi, tunahitaji kusimamisha utoaji wa leseni mpya mpaka sisi kupata majibu ya kuaminika kwa masuala haya. Watanzania wote wanapaswa kushiriki katika mchakato wa kupata majibu ya maswali haya. "
Kutoka Septemba 24, 2012 leseni mpya katika Tanzania wamekuwa suspended.
Kadhaa washauri wanaohusika katika sekta ya mafuta na gesi ni tayari kutoa maoni yao mbali rekodi. Wote ni kufahamu kwamba sekta ya mafuta ni mchezaji kubwa: $ US2.1 trilioni zinahitajika kwa ajili ya uwekezaji katika mafuta na gesi barani Afrika miundombinu ugavi (refineries, barabara, nzima miji, bandari) kati ya 2010 na 2035.
Washauri contractually amefungwa si kwa majadiliano juu ya kile wanachokifanya, na ni hofu ya bite mkono kwamba huwalisha. Moja aliniambia: "Ni mapema mno kusema; tunalolijua ni kwamba wengi wa Afrika ya Mashariki ina mifumo hakuna udhibiti katika nafasi kwa ajili ya mafuta na rasilimali za madini unyonyaji. Au kama wana, kuna ukosefu uliokithiri wa utashi kutekeleza yao. Selous katika Tanzania, Bonde la Ufa na Albertine Murchison Falls Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Uganda, na Virunga Hifadhi ya Taifa ya Rwanda wote walikuwa na tathmini ya mazingira au mipango ya usimamizi ambayo si kuzingatiwa au kutekelezwa. Wao kukaa juu ya rafu, unread.
Tunahitaji disincentivise rushwa, kuzuia kodi ya kutafuta tabia, watu kukamatwa, aina nje ya mfumo wetu wa mahakama, na kufanya hivyo unviable kufanya ya muda mfupi tabia rushwa ". Nchini Kenya usimamizi wa mazingira ya masomo yanayohusiana na bomba Lapsett, bandari Mwambani katika Tanga Hifadhi ya Bahari na Ziwa Natron wamekuwa kabisa leapfrogged. mjadala juu ya jinsi 'safi' asili / shale gesi ni (kumbuka jinsi ni vigumu kujiingiza 'neutral' sayansi) bado kinaendelea.
Juu ya ardhi, ukosefu huu wa kanuni ina athari halisi, kweli matokeo. Hakuna tathmini ya mazingira ni katika uwanja wa umma. Kwenye karatasi kuna kampuni ya uwajibikaji wa kijamii vipeperushi na watu walioajiriwa kutekeleza mashauriano ya kijamii. Hakika katika mikoa ya Mtwara, Mikindani, Lindi na Kilwa (katika pwani kusini mwa Tanzania, karibu na mpaka na Msumbiji), wakazi wa ndani ni wasiwasi wa kuelewa kama mafuta na gesi asilia mapato kuongeza thamani kwa ajili ya mji mkuu wa kisasa, au kama watakuwa kupotosha na kuharibu tayari tete ya hali hiyo.
kituo cha mabasi katika Mikindani ni ukiwa, huzuni mahali, waliopotea na wamesahau na mji mkuu, 650km mbali. wananchi hawana kazi, na bado wanasubiri kulipwa kwa ajili ya mazao yao ya mwisho wa majira ya 'korosho. "Baada ya kupata mafuta au gesi hapa, matajiri tu kula," anasema mtu mmoja, ajira kwa miaka miwili iliyopita.
Katika mkoa wa pwani ya Afrika Mashariki kuna baadhi ya siri chafu. Ajira na maisha ni katika fujo: pwani uvuvi jamii baruti hadi mara nne saa moja katika bay katika Mkoa wa Mtwara, na jukwaa mafuta kuna kuchimba haki karibu na Hifadhi ya baharini maarufu kwa farasi bahari na kasa.
Hata hivyo jitihada zote kupata ushahidi wa tathmini, ya mashauriano uliofanywa juu ya ardhi na kuchimba visima makampuni, wakiongozwa popote. Kila ahadi ya kutuma mipango ya mashauriano na akaenda unfulfilled. Unbelievably, uchunguzi wangu mwenyewe, zaidi ya miezi tisa ya nyongeza ya msingi katika kanda, nimekubali kitu. ujumbe wa jumla kutoka kwa watu wa ndani nalisema na ni kwamba wao si kweli kujua nini kinaendelea, na wao siyo kupata ajira, hata zenye kipato ndio kama wafanyakazi wa usalama, kwa sababu wao siyo sifa ya kutosha.
Madhara ya suala hili ni mbaya sana. Profesa Marc Kochzius ya Brussels maoni Chuo Kikuu: "ukiathiri hii mtaji wa asili ya rasilimali wanaoishi na mafuta ulafi na unyonyaji gesi kwamba uharibifu au kuharibu mazingira hayo itakuwa na isiyopaswa na kali madhara ya kijamii na kiuchumi. Kama mazingira ya pwani hakuna tena msaada uvuvi kujikimu, sehemu kubwa ya wakazi wa pwani kupoteza chanzo chao kikuu cha protini ya wanyama, tangu uvuvi ni uwezekano tu kwa ajili ya watu maskini ili kukidhi mahitaji yao. "
Kuna haja kwa nguvu, na gesi asilia na mafuta inaweza kutoa hii, lakini kama tu ni umewekwa, kufuatiliwa, na kufanyika kwa makini. msongamano wa watu katika Tanzania kwa ujumla ni mdogo, na kujenga mitandao ya maambukizi ya nyaya za umeme ghali, kwamba watu wengi kubaki off-gridi ya taifa kwa ajili ya kizazi kijacho, kulingana na Erica Mackey wa Tanzania kampuni Off.Grid: Umeme.
Kwa ajili ya watu hawa (zaidi ya 90% ya vijijini Tanzania ni off-gridi) vingi vya nishati mbadala ufumbuzi ni njia bora au tu: nishati ya jua kwa ajili ya Simu ya taa na simu / kompyuta TV /, na biogas kwa ajili ya kupikia (kwa wale ambao wana ng'ombe). mipango ya sasa wanaonekana kuwa juu-nzito, na miji mikuu ya kitaifa kubakiza udhibiti wa mapato ya gesi ya asili na usambazaji. Oliver Kynaston ya Tanzania makao Shamba maoni Teknolojia: "Watanzania tuna njia ndefu ya kwenda kabla ya kushindana na wenzao wa Ulaya au Marekani katika suala la CO2 kwa kila mtu."
Nchini Msumbiji, Uganda na Tanzania, mafuta na gesi ya asili ya kuchimba visima utafanyika katika hifadhi za taifa na UN World Heritage Sites. serikali ni ya kwanza ya faragha kukubali kwamba hawawezi kusimamia shinikizo maendeleo burgeoning. Dk Dembe, mwandamizi wa Tanzania National Parks Chama rasmi, anasema: "changamoto kati ya wanyamapori, rasilimali na uchimbaji si rahisi matatizo, na kuongeza rasilimali uchimbaji ndani ya hii complicates yote. Nina wasiwasi hatuna uwezo, uongozi na wanasiasa kufanya hili vizuri. "
Kuwe na fedha kwa ajili ya utafiti wa mazingira na msaada kwa jamii. Kila kampuni ya mafuta ya kufanya kazi katika Tanzania ina kuchangia dola 100,000 kwa mwaka kwa serikali kuu kama ada ya msingi ya usajili. Na kama matokeo ya masomo ya kujifunza katika madini ya dhahabu, serikali ya Tanzania ni kuuliza kwa 60% ya mapato yote ya gesi. Hata hivyo, fedha taratibu katika Afrika Mashariki kwa ajili ya kuweka akaunti ya mapato ni kwa makusudi hazieleweki: makampuni tu kusajiliwa na Tume ya Ulinzi na Exchange (katika Marekani) wanatakiwa kuwasilisha ripoti za fedha - ambayo majani ya makampuni ya Italia, Brazil na Uingereza msamaha.
Hata hivyo, ni rahisi, kama tayari imejitokeza katika Uganda, kwa mawaziri wa ndani na majaji ili kuhakikisha kwamba taarifa za nyaraka zinazohusiana na mafuta huwekwa nje ya nyanja za umma. mkongwe Oilwatch mwanaharakati Nnimmo Bassey comments: "ufumbuzi wa mwisho si uwazi katika sekta ya mafuta ya petroli: wewe si tu kupata. sekta si kukubali kulipa gharama ya mazingira kwamba wao externalise. ufumbuzi wa mwisho ni kuondoka mafuta katika udongo. "
Open Society wenzangu na mwandishi wa habari Angelo Izama ni zaidi ya matumaini: yeye anaona mafuta na gesi kupitia lenzi ya ujenzi wa serikali, na anaona kwamba katika hii moja Kenya ushindi mapenzi. Vyombo vya habari yake ya kuvutia na imara mazingira na kueleza kisiasa wakazi wanadai, na Sawa hivyo.
Hii si kesi nchini Tanzania bado. Tanzania Waziri wa Nishati na Rasilimali Madini, William Ngeleja, alitangaza Machi 2012 kwamba Petrobras, Motherland Industries na Urithi Rukwa (kutoka Brazil, India na Uingereza, mtiririko) itakuwa nafasi ya leseni ya kuchunguza kwa miaka 11. Katika yake, na kila mengine ya serikali kutolewa vyombo vya habari katika vyombo vya habari Afrika Mashariki kulikuwa hakuna kutaja ya masuala ya kutisha WWF Afrika Mashariki na IUCN. Kuna zaidi ya 220 aina ya Red Orodha katika mikoa ya kutengwa kwa ajili ya mafuta na kuchimba gesi asilia. Wataalamu kuonyesha hali ya kutishiwa ya seagrass, pwani ya mikoko, dugongs, coelacanths, turtles bahari, Mantas na maeneo ya matumbawe ya siku za nyuma kwamba mbalimbali juu ya maelfu ya maili pamoja ukanda wa pwani hii ya Afrika Mashariki.
Dunia Resources Institute, UNESCO, IUCN na mbalimbali savvy uhakika na eneo hili kama inahusu baadhi ya mifumo tata zaidi na kuvutia baharini duniani. mnyenyekevu, nyenyekevu seagrass vitanda ni muhimu sana kama kulisha misingi na maeneo ya kitalu kwa aina nyingi kutoka katika makazi wengi, na kucheza sehemu kubwa katika kuzuia mmomonyoko wa udongo.
Haya si kibiolojia sideshows, au whimsy ya wanasayansi katika hothouses Ulaya. Hizi ni sehemu muhimu ya uwezo bahari 'kwa msaada wa maisha, kwa kudumisha oksijeni katika anga yetu, na kwa msaada wa aina mbalimbali ya rasilimali nyingine. majaribu ni kuwa hazieleweki, kufikiri kwamba mafuta na gesi ni kati ya existences yetu. Wao si: katika suala wazi, tunapaswa kutambua kwamba katika ushindani wa rasilimali, sisi ni kuruhusu mashirika ya kimataifa ya mafuta na gesi ya kampuni ya kushinda katika mashindano, na kwa njaa yetu katika kuwasilisha, literally. Kochzius anasema: "Kulinda mazingira ya pwani, kama vile miamba ya matumbawe, seagrasses na mikoko, ni maslahi ya muhimu ya mataifa ya Afrika Mashariki, kwa sababu hizi makazi kusaidia maisha ya jamii. kusababisha gharama za kijamii na kiuchumi kwa mataifa ya Afrika Mashariki ili kuzidi faida zilizopatikana kutokana na hii uchimbaji wa mafuta na gesi. "
Ni sisi katika Afrika Mashariki mateso fomu ya amnesia? Imani isiyo ya nishati endelevu ya nishati na juu-matumizi ya mafuta - ambalo lipo katika mizizi ya usasa - huenda kwa kiasi kikubwa unquestioned, hasa kwa vyombo vya habari vya Afrika Mashariki na wapiga kura. Mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa tayari vizuri kumbukumbu katika Afrika, lakini taka umba kutoka madini, ikiwa ni pamoja na mafuta na gesi asilia, si. Mujibu wa ripoti kutoka Marafiki wa Dunia katika Ulaya mwaka 2007, "uzito jumla ya vifaa vyote kuondolewa kote duniani ilifikia tani bilioni 60, sawa na 25kg/day kwa kila mtu katika dunia.
Kwa takwimu hii lazima aliongeza zaidi ya tani bilioni 40 ya vifaa kuondolewa kutoka usawa wa ardhi lakini si kutumika katika michakato ya uzalishaji wenyewe, kama vile 'overburden' kutoka shughuli za madini. ('Overburden' ni neno linalotumiwa na mazingira - miamba, mimea, udongo - kwamba liko juu mshono makaa ya mawe au mwili ore, pia iitwayo 'taka' au 'nyara' katika sekta mujibu wa Mining Journal, bilioni 50. tani ya dunia ni wakiongozwa kila mwaka na shughuli za madini, tani bilioni 21 ambayo ni ya kupita). "
Bassey maoni: "Mimi nina uhakika kuna jamii nchini Tanzania na Kenya ambazo kuyameza hadithi kutoka sekta ya mafuta na serikali. Hiyo ilikuwa hali nchini Nigeria miaka 54 iliyopita, nchini Uganda, nchini Ghana. Sasa tunajua bora. Wengi jamii tayari kuona makucha ya wazi ya sekta. Mafuta-mafuta ustaarabu umefikia mwisho wake kwa wafu. Kitu zaidi tu ina maana kwenda juu ya genge. "
Kulinganisha na hali Niger Delta ni ngumu na uwepo wa haramu visima vya mafuta ('Bunkering'), unyonyaji wa chuki zilizopo kikabila na vyama nia, kuyumba sahihi data (mara nyingi walikutana na ajenda maalum katika akili), na rushwa ambayo inaongozwa nchi kabla ya 1999. matumizi ya uchomaji wa gesi, na kushindwa kufuatilia uvujaji mbili kubwa ya mafuta katika Agosti na Desemba 2008 katika Niger Delta (ambapo kiasi cha kilichomwagika mafuta ilikuwa kubwa kama kilichomwagika kwamba kwa Tanker Exxon Valdez mafuta katika Alaska mwaka 1989) kuwa na wanaharakati kukasirishwa.
"Ajali Exxon Valdez ni kuchukuliwa moja ya majanga ya mbaya ya mazingira ya wakati wote," anasema Bassey. "Kwa nini maafa ya mazingira katika Niger Delta kamwe kufikiwa ngazi moja ya umuhimu? kimya deafening juu ya ngazi hii ya kushambuliwa kiikolojia hufanya baadhi yetu kufikia hitimisho kwamba haki za binadamu na mazingira ni muhimu tu wakati wao ni breached katika nchi tajiri, yenye nguvu. Hakuna maswali aliuliza. Ni mechi ya marudiano ya ukiukwaji ziliingizwa kutoka zamani wa kikoloni, sura mbovu ya ubeberu. "
Katika Ulaya na Afrika, Green Belt Movement (GBM) imekuwa kuangalia na utafutaji mafuta ya wasiwasi na ugunduzi katika Afrika Mashariki katika miaka ya karibuni. Francesca de Gasparis ya GBM Ulaya anasema: "matendo ya makampuni ya mafuta mahali pengine duniani kote hawana zinaonyesha nguvu ya mazingira uwakili au mtizamo. kumwagika Ghuba mwaka 2010 na kushinikiza sasa kwa ajili ya kuchimba visima Arctic licha ya madhara makubwa hasi uwezo wa mazingira kuonyesha kwamba wakati umwagikaji kutokea ni mazingira na jamii kwamba hatimaye kulipa bei. "
Sisi wote ni zinadaiwa chaguzi akili zaidi kuliko tu zinazotokana na mabaki ya kisasa mipango ya kushauriana na watendaji mafuta ameketi katika ofisi 25-sakafu na maoni ya Amsterdam, Dublin, Manhattan au Tower Bridge. Afrika Mashariki wanapaswa kuwa kukataliwa haki ya kisasa, lakini utafutaji wa mafuta na gesi ya asili lazima tu kuendelea ikiwa sahihi, kisayansi tight, kihistoria habari na contextually sahihi sababu za kimazingira na kijamii ni pamoja na, na kwa umma. Mashamba ya upepo kwa sasa ni kuwa kujengwa katika Uganda na Kenya. Nini ni wao si kupokea ngazi moja ya msaada wa ruzuku, na shauku?
Tunahitaji kujua zaidi juu ya udongo, meza maji na mmomonyoko wa udongo na kuhakikisha kwamba jamii ambao wakili au kutegemea mali za thamani ya mazingira kuchukua umiliki wao. Tunahitaji pembejeo kutoka kwa mashirika kama Farm Africa, Initiative Nobel ya Wanawake, Sikika, Twaweza ('Sisi Je Make It Kutokea'), Tanzania Maliasili Forum, Jukwaa, Green Belt na jeshi la mipango mingine ya kiraia, ambayo kuelewa na kujua jinsi ya kushauriana jamii. Basi tunaweza kuwa na uhusiano wa matunda, majadiliano kuhusu reli kujengwa haki hela kutoka Afrika ya Kati na pwani, na bandari na majukwaa ya utafutaji haki ya karibu na mbuga za baharini na mbuga ndani ya taifa.
Tunahitaji kuzungumza kuhusu jinsi ya asili uchumi kupotosha gesi na mafuta: kuhusu maelfu ya wakulima ambao watakufa kama mazao yao ni kunyimwa ya maji, na wavuvi ambao itaendelea baruti kulindwa Hindi Bahari ya miamba ya matumbawe kama hawawezi line samaki kwa sababu wao ni kushindana na rigs utafutaji, meli super au outfits fracking. Kugawanyika, sahihi na Obscure habari kuhusu mazingira mahitaji ya kuwa kikamilifu reworked na kuelezwa kwa wananchi wa Afrika Mashariki. Kama sisi ni mbaya kuhusu Malengo ya Maendeleo ya Milenia, basi tunahitaji thread yao katika baadhi ya masuala ya msingi ya maendeleo ya Afrika: na wale ni pamoja na utafutaji wa mafuta na gesi.
