Members of the public continue to castigate the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) on social media, especially Facebook and Whatsapp, after the agency announced on June 7, 2019 that it had received an application for a permit to conduct feasibility studies for a proposed plant near Murchison Falls in Kiryandongo and Nwoya districts.
Era in an advertisement said the application by the developer is available for viewing by members of the public and that it has not issued the licence yet.
“We wish to clarify to our stakeholders about this notice. ERA has not issued a License for the establishment of Power Plant at Murchison Falls but received an application for a permit to conduct feasibility studies for a proposed plant near the falls,” the agency says in a notice posted on its Facebook page.
Despite the clarification ERA has received condemnations from the members of the public who don’t want anything like a dam constructed near the falls that are a hot spot for both domestic and foreign tourists.
The agency says it has noted all stakeholders’ comments on this matter. “Please refer to the notice, comments are supposed to be addressed to the Secretary to the Authority by way of a letter or an email to info@era.or.ug. The feedback will be put into consideration while the Authority makes a decision on the application,” the agency says.
Listed below are just some of the people who have criticized Era over the matter:
Amos Wekesa: Guys, keep off Murchison falls…..you have destroyed enough water falls.
Denis Katende: Good move. How o wish u used the same mercy to leave Murchison Falls and find elsewhere to build the dam. These are the only falls of their kind on planet earth. There must be heartless mafias behind this in ERA. Please save our falls.
Tony Mubiru Jr.: Keep off the Murchison falls find somewhere else to put your dams
Prossie Munabuddu: You can fool some people sometimes but you cannot fool everyone all the time. You were comfortable enough to quote Section 29 and 30 as if this is mere preparatory work with no impact. You forgot Section 31 of the same Act which states that you will then issue a permit not more than 30 days after. So please let this be your notice that we are not blind. You have destroyed every bit of this country’s beauty and you will not stop until Ugandans basically come with canes and pangas and chase you out of your offices. Enough is enough. Museveni told us in his speech that Uganda has more than enough electricity and is already exporting some. So why do you need any more? We as a country will not stand by and watch you destroy everything there is before we finally say a word. If it means us camping at Murchison Falls to frustrate this nyokory and ensure that this South African investor does not destroy our tourism, we shall do so. I am sure you are familiar with how the native Americans continue to frustrate the Dakota Pipeline. We shall do exactly that. This nyokory needs to stop and your idiocy should have limits. Leave Murchison Falls alone! Stay off! Keep away.
Peter Mugogo: Granted! Now, please share the public outcry with your self-centered investor to form part of their feasibility. Please don’t tell us about you having received the application as a matter of procedure no! That application should have been thrown out because the Coordinates of the area in question are in the National park, at the great falls and on the mighty Nile. You had no duty receiving such an application. You would have served this country better if you had rejected the application and put out a public notice to that effect … we would be celebrating as a matter of fact.
Ignatius Oluka Okanya: ERA I am very annoyed. I wish I could mobilize all animals in that park against those claiming to conduct feasibility studies, I would keep all lions for one month without food and when you come I unleash their wrath to see how strong your skins, stomachs and throats are. To hell. Enough is enough. The world is moving solar please think outside the box and leave Gods water falls alone. Are you paid to destroy and not to innovate?
Emmy Okello: Unbelievable! Why can’t we expand our sources of revenue beyond destroying waterfalls and selling electricity? Murchison Falls is uniquely beautiful and generates its own revenue through tourism.
Proscovier Vikman: Murchison Falls are not for sale. ERA not everything in Uganda is up for grabs! What is wrong with this government? Leave the falls alone!!!!!!
Judith Allsaints: Why don’t we tap into the potential of solar energy? Let’s not destroy everything and deny the generations to come the beauty that the pearl of Africa is blessed with. Let’s love our country first.
BA Wandera: ERA, please have a human heart. Have a heart for a better Uganda tomorrow. Don’t destroy murchison falls the way you destroyed Bujjagali. I know you are in business but the country can generate more revenue from tourism. Please!!!!!!!.
Jonathan Benaiah: Panic PR. It’s exhausting being Ugandan most times; you always have to make noise for these chaps in Government to think straight. I still find it crazy for ERA to consider setting up another Hydropower dam, let alone, along the Nile. You say “…feasibility study near the falls” but your same newspaper Ad has coordinates pointing to the very spot we call Murchison Falls. You guys must be nuts! We will identify you, we will bring all those hiding behind this so-called Bonang company to light. You seem to be on a spree to destroy all waterfalls in this country.
Ronald Mugabe: I hear application to do feasibility studies for a plant near the falls. And u think we are dense not to know where all this will lead. Just shred the application and let us continue life like no application was ever submitted. Let the applicants go make a man-made river in their backyard and build the power plant if they badly need one. Stay off Murchison falls.
Sande David: Please be reasonable! Murchison Falls, the most powerful waterfalls in the world is a natural wonder that we will never regain if lost… Other sources of electricity are available and more shall be discovered but you will never discover another Murchison Falls… Please keep off!!!!!!!
Ntate Rwatamagufa Omusigi: Do we have embeciles in ERA? Have these guys sold their souls for money? Do they ever think that the people before them conserved these natural resources so that future generations could appreciate the beauty of this land? Are they carrying empty heads? STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM MURCHISON FALLS.
Nelson Kasooba: What’s wrong with Uganda, are we bewitched? Really with the foreign income that we lost through the Bujjagali project again same to be extended to the Mighty Murchison Falls!! As for Tourism what shall we be left with really? Whoever is behind this you need to think beyond the box sincerely. This is so demoralizing to our struggling economy that’s constantly running on debts, when shall we gain economic independence if we continue being misled like this? No no no.
Peter Karizha: Electricity Regulatory Authority back off Murchison falls, I as a customer, citizen I put my voice to say this permit to conduct feasibility studied be rejected immediately. Let’s preserve our God given heritage that has not only served our fore father’s but to serve our future children and foreigners who will come to see this master piece.
Denis Katende: ERA please, we do not need to wait for u to issue a licence therefore your clarification is in called for. U already destroyed our best grade five white water rafting site on the Nile (The only of its kind in the whole world). Please leave our Murchison falls alone. Whereas a dam can be constructed anywhere else or power can be generated through other means, we cannot have any other falls like Murchison falls, they are the only of their kind in the whole world. Don’t behave like u r foreign in this beautiful country.
Rubasha Emma Mukiza: They are applying because they think it’s possible. Please be clear that it’s unacceptable. Don’t make monsters out of us. #keep off Murchison Falls.
Prossie P Kikawa: Guyz at ERA de ball is in your hands many falls have been destroyed because of power plants and at de end of de day power z still expensive so let’s leave Murchison falls out of this if u have been to Murchison falls u know wat I mean it’s a spot for appreciating nature and by de way it’s a unique one so leave it alone.
Celestine Nkabalema: It’s clear, those developers haven’t done a social feasibility….#Murchison Falls is an Asset for us and generations to come, it should be left as it is…no studies should even be conducted there.
The application comes at the time when already Nalubaale Power station, Isimba Power Station, Bujagali Power Station are operating on River Nile in Uganda, with Karuma also on the Nile, expected to be completed in December this year. More others are planned on the same river.
Meanwhile, ERA says it is working with the National Forestry Authority (NFA) to restore forest cover in the catchment areas of the Rivers that host Hydropower Plants in the Central, Western, West Nile and Northern Regions of the Country.
Hydro contributes 80 per cent to Uganda’s Energy Mix. Uganda expects to have generating capacity of at least 1,681 megawatts by the end of 2020. As of April 2019, national generation capacity was 1,177 megawatts of electricity.
While delivering the State of the Nation Address last Thursday, President Museveni said Uganda was in the process of establishing nuclear plants to bolster the energy sector.
