Since late 2017 E-Tech has been an advisor to the Ngethe Media Association in Uganda and Agenonga Robert a human rights advocate concerned with the human and environmental cost of oil development in the Albertine Rift region of Uganda and specifically the Murchison Falls area.
E-Tech chief engineer Bill Powers traveling to Uganda in 2019 with Oxfam International to work with human rights leaders internationally and to meet with oil representatives, government, and local indigenous NGOs to assess how to address the impacts of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project conducted with Uganda government support by French oil giant Total, an investment in oil exploration and exploitation and piping downstream to Tanga, Tanzania.
E-Tech has urged the Ugandan government, Total and their largest investor, Blackrock Investments to adopt best practices for oil development in the region and to transparently work to halt human rights violations, property seizures, and large scale destruction in the region to biodiversity, indigenous territory, and flora and fauna.
We urge you to read the December 2020 letter from E-Tech to Blackrock Investments that reflects our probono commitment (so far) to this very upsetting development.
We have included a link to a February 17, 2021 Global Greengrants Fund about Robert and the sister organization he works with the Lake Albert Social Network.
In a February 2021 report, Robert updated E-Tech with news that a small grant from us resulted in creating a nursery for April-June planting of 11,000 native tree plantings for areas impacted by development of extractive industries in the region.
