Uganda’s Edgy Relation to Ghana: The
Susceptibility of Uganda to the Threat of Irresponsible Corporate Activity
Uganda has
increased its extraction of gold and communal benefit could be within its grasp
but a dilemma has no arisen in how to properly sustain its processes and
dispersion of wealth amongst the community. In relation, Ghana has been mining
gold form its western territory for decades, however, the western area is
ironically the poorest in the whole country. The area is fraught with environmental
degradation through the contamination of local waters caused by mining
activity. AngloGold Ashanti is currently working in the region. Could Uganda
become affected by the same pillaging negligence as Ghana?
As stated by
Stephen Nuwagira, Senior Sub-Editor for Vision Group of the Governance of
Extractive Industries blog post, “Problems come when law-makers draft policies
that do not properly guide on the use of the money accruing from the resource
or how to exploit the resource sustainably”, (Nuwagira 2012). Already we are
seeing an increase of corporate unaccountability as providers contracted by
Tullow Oil are contaminating local streams and fishing waters of Hoima, Uganda
and have done nothing upon the request of the local people to responsibly
remove the contamination from the waters in which residents use for home
consumption. Land takeovers are prevalent in the regions of heavy oil activity
and frequently go on without adequate compensation for the land. The National
Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) has been mentioned as developing a
national oil spillage contingency plan but with the Albertine Graben being such
a hot-spot of ecological importance, there is skepticism that the plans will
fall short of their obligation towards the people.
The fact of
the matter is that although these multinational corporations proclaim their
watchful eye of the well-being of both the people and the environment, the
truth is that there has not been one single company within Africa to
sustainably and spotlessly contribute to the economic plight of any region
affected by the resource curse. The environmental devastation and degradation
of the local fishing communities have been immense cause for concern but are
simply not addressed. We must now keep a close eye on Uganda and the operations
of the companies guaranteeing they are “doing their best” in benefitting the
true well-being of the region’s communities.
GOXI (Blog
Post) Oil: Can Uganda avoid Ghana's gold
curse?
Posted by Nuwagira Stephen on
November 21, 2012 at 12:30
Opaque Transparency: Issues in
Transparency Involving Digital Contracting Network
The South
African Mineral Resources Administration Online System (Samrad) was officially put
into place to improve the application process of, “prospecting rights, mining rights and mining
permits through the online submission of the requisite documentation, thereby
avoiding the often convoluted manual application process”, (Greve 2012). This
process provides fluency among acknowledging the parameters of a certain
industry’s territory within a region. This means that the system is now
susceptible to “double-granting” mineral rights and providing a gap in which the
corporations can now wave accountability upon their involvement within mining
sectors. To reiterate – TWO corporations can be pillaging in a region that has
been declared to only host ONE.
With over
3,500 applications for mining rights submitted, there is no doubt that the
system is being used even amongst criticism of its inability to handle the
amount of requests. This gap in validity is dangerous for the communities of
these regions as they are now more susceptible to the inability of registration
processes to mandate a predominant industry in the area. The Department of
Mineral Resources (DMR) cannot go beyond their powers and limit a certain
contract from being passed and this system of incredulous contracting
agreements will continue unless adequate measures are taken by the DMR to re-stabilize
the contracting agreements within the area. Until then, transparency takes the
back seat to the time it takes to register these corporations properly.
Natalie
Greve Mining Weekly Creamer Media: 30th
November 2012 - Electronic Source
Accessed
12/10/12
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/concerns-that-south-africas-flawed-online-mining-cadastre-portal-could-be-constricting-an-already-stressed-mining-sector-2012-11-30
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