(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

project”.
In particular, the report identifies risks regarding the quality of the water: “the lack of
formal guarantees to ensure access to safe drinking water for the local population
given that groundwater contamination from Nitrates and Phosphates are likely to
occur”. Related to these pollution risks, the company established water treatment
systems for the local staff of the plantation, but not for the rest of the local population,
and as they will not be able to afford water purification mechanisms, the authors to
consider that “not all the guarantees are provided to ensure that the project will not
impact negatively the local population’s capacity to afford safe drinking water”. The
report also underlines threats to physical access to water, highlighting “the risk of
insufficient access to water downstream from the project location during the dry
season, for which the company could be potentially seen as a contributing cause.”
The report finally regrets the non-disclosure of the water agreements signed between
the company and the State, and questions “the validity of the prior informed consent of
the local population, based on the fact that the later might have not foreseen the risks
presented in this document with regards the enjoyment of their right to water”.
Women are overwhelmingly impacted by the negative effects brought by agrofuel
related projects. 313 The FAO or instance presented a study in 2008 which concluded
that liquid biofuels production might even exacerbate pre-existing inequalities,
contributing to the socio-economic marginalisation of women and female-headed
households and threatening their livelihoods, with negative implications in particular for
their food security. 314 Women tend to be totally excluded from the negotiations of the
deals – when they take place – by local and international actors who do not make
efforts to reach them. 315 With regards to access to water, the Oakland Institute notes
for example that as a result of the investment of the British agrofuel firm Sun Biofuels
in Tanzania, “local residents, especially women, now have to travel much further than
before to find water and sometimes have to creep onto the Sun Biofuels plantation to
access their old water sources and “steal” the water, or buy it at inflated prices.” 316 The
so called marginal lands planted for agrofuels are frequently used as common property
resource for women who use it to get wood, building material, medicines or other
commodities, and agrofuel projects may cut them from access to crucial resources. 317
The case of Senegal presented in part 4.1 illustrated how men decide over the use of
land without taking into account the views of their wives. The ILC conducted a few
case studies compiling the particular risks of large-scale land deals on women,
including a number of biofuel projects in Africa. 318
The impact of agrofuel related investments is particularly marking on the right to
sovereignty over natural resources. Article 21 of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights states:
1. All peoples shall freely dispose of their wealth and natural
resources. This right shall be exercised in the exclusive interest
of the people. In no case shall a people be deprived of it.
2. In case of spoliation the dispossessed people shall have the
right to the lawful recovery of its property as well as to an
adequate compensation.
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