Throughout my life I never knew I would find some environmental activists objectionable and so counter to African interests. This is disturbing. I give you a woman called Joyce Katushabe who is from Buliisa on oil rich western Uganda. She lives in a one-bedroom grass thatched hut.
She used to walk long distances to fetch firewood. She would chop down trees, bundle them up, lift the heavy bundle on her head in the scorching sun. She had to walk long distances with this load on her head and then get on her knees and offload the burden from her sweat drenched face all because she does not have an electricity switch in her hut nor a cooker to make food for her family. The firewood is obviously got from cutting a tree. She would then treck back many kilometers to fetch water from the well because she did not have running water in her hut. Depict her kneeling and picking water from the deep well. Completely exhausted, she gets home to start the process of preparing a meal for her family.
Thanks to Total Energies and the Government of Uganda, Joyce now lives in a house which does not leak like the hut with amenities. Her dignity and self-esteem assured in a new neighbourhood of Buliisa.
THE UGANDA OIL PROJECT A CAREFULLY CONSIDERED OPPORTUNITY FOR UGANDA’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BY HON. Dr. ELLY KARUHANGA.
