"Team Investigates Complaints Over Oil Pipeline Project"

Total has dispatched an independent team of experts to investigate complaints about compensation and assess environmental impacts over the construction of Hoima- Tanga oil pipeline. The aim is to come up with a report which will lead into the start of the project. The team leader, Mr Luc Zandviliet, of Triple R Alliance Company based in the Netherlands, said discussions would be offered with various community groups about the project. "We will meet groups of communities in villages where the pipeline will pass through as well as government officials, non-governmental organisations, women and human rights activists...As an independent team, we were assigned to survey and come up with public confidence on the project of which we will present to implementers of the project."

Mr Zandviliet, who is also an expert on investigating new international projects, said after presenting the report, Total will sit with the governments of Uganda and Tanzania on how to remove all barriers that may distort the whole idea of the project. He said the team initially visited Chongoleani Ward for discussions with villagers, local government officials, the district commissioner and representatives of non-governmental organisations."There is a land policy and laws which determine how compensation should be calculated," he said.

The oil project representative, Mr Theophil Selestine, said the investigation would also identify challenges and which did not emerge during the relocation and compensation processes. "Since this is a big project, it is impossible to avoid complaints."