Uganda: Environmental authority admits failing to assess the full impacts of oil

Uganda has failed to carry out a comprehensive environmental and social impact study in the Albertine Graben oil exploration and production area, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) Director, Dr. Tom Okurut, admitted during a September 6 meeting in Kampala. 'This study was supposed to be the first thing we did before any activities began. But we did not have the money to do it. Now that we have the money, we are doing it and it will be completed by December 2012,' Dr. Okurut told some 200 researchers, government staff and civil society representatives at a public meeting hosted by Nature Uganda at the Uganda Museum.