Action Agenda
Rivers and Lakes
In their natural state, the magnificent rivers of Africa – the Nile, Congo, Zambezi and many others – have sustained life on this continent for centuries. Villages, towns, farms, wildlife and cities have grown and prospered because our rivers have always been there for them. Our lakes – most notably Lake Victoria, but others as well – have also sustained life with a rich bounty of fish and wildlife.
However, in recent years government has promoted projects from large dams to factory farms for export crops that degrade biodiversity, pollute our waters, deprive farm and fishing communities of their livelihoods, and violate human rights. NAPE conducts a wide range of action programs to protect Uganda’s rivers and lakes, including hosting the African Rivers Network.
The declining health of Lake Victoria is Uganda’s biggest shame – as industrial and urban pollutants spread further every year into its waters to harm life-sustaining fisheries and wildlife – and as engineering for downstream hydroelectric dams has artificially drained its waters to a historic low. The decline in fish species in the lake, the United Nations reported in 2010, “is considered to be the largest documented loss of biodiversity ever inflicted on an ecosystm by humankind.”
Also shameful is the disregard for the natural beauty and function of the Nile River, so central to the lives of millions of Ugandans.
Our other major lakes are also being degraded – Lake Albert by oil exploration, Lake Kyoga by stormwater from settlements and farms, Lake George by declining glacier runoff and mining wastes, and Lake Edward because of copper mining wastes – to cite a few examples.
Growing Abuse
The abuse of our rivers and lakes includes allowing large and small-scale industrial pollution, ignoring unchecked urban stormwater runoff, incompetent municipal water, sewerage and solid waste management, unsanitary household practices, clear-cutting forests for industrial farming, illegal mining and sloppy mining practices, wetlands encroachment, and disrupting our magnificent rivers with counter-productive hydroelectric dams.
The need is urgent for Uganda to protect all waters from further degradation. Only by adopting truly sustainable national policies can we ensure abundant, clean supplies for our future prosperity. This is all the more urgent as we face the growing threat of global climate change that disrupting historic patterns of rainfall and temperatures.
We also urgently need a halt to Uganda’s large-dams-only program. For the last half-century, Uganda has financed construction of large hydroelectric dams, promising cheap electricity and prosperity for all – ignoring the damaging human and environmental impacts, abusing the human rights of affected communities, and neglecting more cost-effective and sustainable energy solutions – blatantly ignoring what we know are the facts.
NAPE Actions
In response to these urgent problems with our rivers and lakes, NAPE has an action agenda with these major elements:
Dams
NAPE has opposed the government’s single-minded program to increase production of electricity solely by building more hydroelectric dams on the Nile River. For example:
Although the Bujagali Dam is nearing completion, NAPE’s campaign that began in 1997 forced design changes to reduce some negative impacts, drawing worldwide attention to the plight of communities displaced by new reservoirs, the draining of Lake Victoria to new low levels, the availability of more cost-effective alternative energy solutions, and the repeated failure of dams to produce promised supplies of electricity.
Responding to NAPE’s formal petition, the Inspection Panel of the World Bank visited Uganda in 2001 to investigate our claims about abuses – and found that the Bujagali Dam project violated national and World Bank policies. Another inspection panel from the World Bank, European Investment Banks and African Development Bank in 2007 found similar violations.
With startup funding from the Ford Foundation, and later support from the United Nations and GTZ, the German development agency, NAPE in 2004 helped organize the Uganda Dams Dialogue (UDD) to apply the UN World Commission on Dams principles here and bring dams development in Uganda up to world standards. Included in the UDD are Uganda government ministries, the private sector, national and international NGOs, and dam-affected communities.
To address the devastating impact of large dams, NAPE in 2006 organized the Lake Victoria Forum, a stakeholder’s group bringing together government, NGOs, private sector, scientists and community leaders. The Forum developed findings and strategies to help salvage the lake from further decline.
The proposed Karuma Dam – on the Nile between Masindi and Gulu – raises similar concerns, and NAPE is monitoring its design, costs and impacts. We have already raised the issue of its exorbitant cost, now estimated at $US2.2 billion.
African Rivers Network
Formed in 2003 and coordinated by NAPE, the African Rivers Network, includes dam- affected communities and nongovernmental organisations from over 20 African countries. Our aim is to influence corporate and government decision-making and to amplify community voices and rights, in keeping with principles spelled out in 2000 by the World Commission on Dams (WCD), a United Nations initiative. Human rights, community acceptance of decisions, and reparations for outstanding social injustices should be the cornerstone for any future dam development in Africa.
Our program to promote environmental and economic sustainability for African rivers centers on:
Promoting the rights of dam-affected communities to have ready access to project information, to build their capacity, to protect their rights, and to engage decision makers in positive interactions.
Building the research capacity of members, conducting research projects, and documenting and disseminating data on the impacts of existing dams.
Advocating alternative energy sources and water options that can better serve the needs of Africans.
Insisting that dam projects in Africa adhere to WCD principles, such as transparency and full participation, consideration of all alternatives, maximizing benefits to affected communities, minimizing environmental damage, and ensuring compliance by independent review.
Besides creating awareness of the WCD principles, the African Rivers Network is committed to empowering local communities to use the WCD core values and strategic priorities, engaging regional government and financial institutions, and promoting national multi stakeholder structures, dialogue and processes on the WCD principles.
Since 2003, the African Rivers Network (ARN) has concentrated on:
Building capacity for dam-affected communities. The ARN helps organize affected communities into coalitions to advocate for their rights in the construction and operation of dams in Africa. For example, in 2010 the ARN held a workshop in Kampala for East Africa civil society members from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, with the financial support of Grassroots International.
Promoting the rights of dam-affected people. The ARN has advocated for them at such international forums as the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on climate change (also known as COP15). In another case, ARN took up the cause of Ugandan workers shockingly mistreated by the Italian company building the Bujagali Dam, drafting a complaint on their behalf and sending it to the World Bank ombudsman.
Building research capacity of members. ARN is conducting research projects, and documenting and disseminating data on the impact of existing dams and success stories where alternatives to dams have been built. For example, ARN and NAPE raised awareness of flouting of international standards in the European financing of the Bujagali (Uganda) and Gibe III (Ethiopia) dams projects.
Promoting alternative energy sources. ARN advocates for alternatives to large dams, such as solar and geothermal projects, low-impact non-dam hydropower facilities, co-generation, and, the cheapest source of all, energy efficiency to address the energy needs of Africans. These alternatives exist, they work, and they are affordable.
The nations of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda all have, as part of the Africa Rift Valley system, significant potential for geothermal energy. At the urging of the ARN, the World Bank in 2011 announced a programme to help facilitate such programs in Rift Valley nations.
At its founding in 2003, the network was conceived as loose and un-registered, and managed by a Coordinating Committee, which includes eight members: one representative per geographical region (North, West, East, Central, and South); two dam-affected representatives; and one additional representative from the Francophone countries. Each region would select a back-up member to serve in the absence of the regional representative. Frank Muramuzi would serve as chair, and NAPE would administer the network.
Members of the Coordinating Committee are:
Mr. Frank Muramuzi (Uganda), East Africa
Mr. Thabang Ngcozela (South Africa), South Africa
Mr. Taieb Boumeaza (Morocco), North Africa
Mr. Jacques Bakulu (DRC), Central Africa
Ms. Miriam Thenjiwe (South Africa), Dam Affected
Dr. Idris Muslim (Nigeria), Dam Affected
Mr. Hope Ogbeide (Nigeria), West Africa
Mr. Bryan Ashe (South Africa) Coordination Communication (English)
Mr. Sena Alouka (Togo) Coordination Communication (French)
To read more about rivers and lakes, click here.
To read more about ARN, visit: http://sites.google.com/site/africanriversnetwork
