#stopEACOP. This is the new environmental movement to stop one of the biggest projects of the company TotalEnergie, a pipeline to transport oil through Uganda and Tanzania. The issue is not the use of fossil fuels, but rather the destruction of ecosystems that the pipeline will cause.

To begin with, the 1,443km pipeline, will be heated, and is expected to create more than 6 billion barrels of oil per year, resulting in the emission of more than 34 million tons of CO2.

TotalEnergie’s pipeline will cross East Africa through Uganda and Tanzania. This open cut project is the cheapest method for the company but will cause the most damage. The pipes will cut through 16 protected areas representing 2,000km2 of disturbed and fragmented habitat.

The disaster for the ecosystems is immense: the creation of trenches to lay the pipes will have consequences for animals such as giraffes, zebras, buffaloes or even lions, and will lead to the direct destruction of their habitats. It will also affect birds and migratory animals such as elephants and chimpanzees.

In addition, marine ecosystems will also be threatened due to the high risk of oil spills caused by the fact that the Tanzanian coast is a tsunami and earthquake risk zone. The problem is that Lake Victoria is one of the sources of the Nile, so any leakage could have disastrous consequences such as poisoning the water resources of the region…

The problem is that not only  will the ecology be impacted, but also 100,000 people will have to be displaced during the construction of the pipeline.

As noted, TotalEnergie will cause many ecological problems, but of course TotalEnergie defends itself by explaining that their oil project will produce 80,000 jobs, including 11,000 direct jobs, and also promises 2 billion in benefits for local businesses.

The pipeline is therefore a huge project that will bring a lot of profit to TotalEnergie, but will destroy a lot of the environment, which is why environmentalists are demonstrating and some people are suing TotalEnergie for its EACOP project.

Léa MONGENOT