Environmental Impact Assessment as a tool for enforcing Environmental Law in the Oil and Gas Industry in Uganda

3.0Legal and Institutional framework of the Environmental impact assessment process²⁷
3.1Constitutional provisions in regard to EIA²⁸
The Constitution²⁹ provides among its National Objectives³⁰ that utilization of natural resources shall be managed in such a way as to meet the development and environmental needs of the present and future generations of Uganda, particularly taking all measures to prevent or minimize damage and destruction to land, air, water resources resulting from pollution or any other kind of natural resource degradation. the state shall promote sustainable development and public awareness of the need to manage land, air and water resources in a balanced manner for present and future generations
Art.39³¹ provides that every Ugandan has a right to a clean and healthy environment. Art.237(b)³² in turn, provides that the government or Local Government as determined by Parliament by law shall hold in trust for the people and protect natural lakes, rivers, wetlands, forests, game and forest reserves, National Parks and any land to be reserved for ecological and to touristic purposes for the common good of all citizens. This right carries with it the duty of the citizen to protect the environment.
Under Art.244, the constitution³³ provided for minerals but did not provide for oil and gas It provided that parliament should enact laws regulating the exploitation and development of minerals, and such exploitation should take into account the interests of the individual
Land owners, local governments and the government the article did not envisage the minerals as being the property of the government³⁴This position was changed by the Constitution (Amendment) Act 11 of 2005, which provides that ‘All minerals and petroleum in, on or under any land or waters in Uganda are vested in the Government on behalf of the Republic of Uganda.³⁵in effect the government become not just the trustee but the owner of the natural resources including oil/petroleum³⁶,this also meant that land could be acquired compulsorily and compensation given to the inhabitants³⁷ of the area even with the presence of the right to non deprivation of land.³⁸
This development also imposed a duty on the government to put into consideration the Environmental laws before it embarks on the exploration or the mining of minerals making it its obligation to carry out the Environmental Impact Assessment and then act accordingly as provided for in the next legislations.