Andy has recently completed a 1.5 year contract as Technical Director for Wood Saudi Arabia operations, which he was invited to undertake by Wood senior management.
He expanded, trained and mentored the ESIA Department and was Project Director for over 50 ESIAs for NEOM (www.neom.com). He also undertook dozens of construction audits for multiple NEOM projects, ranging from coral fringed islands, the Spine, Line, camps and logistics, water pipelines, wastewater treatment, airports and right up to the mountains of Trojena. He also built an audit section within the department.
Andy is providing Technical Director leadership to Wood plc www.woodplc.com for their involvement in the $500 Billion Giga project www.neom.com in KSA. The project includes extensive transportation, city developments and tourism developments in addition to plans to restore biodiversity across a huge area near the Red Sea Coast
Since the second half of 2020 Huckbody Environmental have been providing Environmental Management services to a pipeline and utility contractor. Project inputs include a new gas pipeline in South Wales near Tredegar and Ebbw Vale, to supply gas for a new Power Station being built in the Rassau Industrial estate.
Andy has been on site conducting inspections and audits and supervising aspects such as HDD under a river and reinstatement through upland habitats, including marshy grassland, bogs, upland flushes and Sphagnum wetlands. Several of the sites are SINCs (Sites of Nature Conservation Importance).
Since Q4 2019 Andy has been providing inputs on Biodiversity and Coordination for the Supplemental Assessment required to support international financing, in accordance with IFC standards.
Hirola: Perhaps the world’s rarest and most endangered antelope found along the pipeline route
The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) System is a planned export pipeline project that will transport oil from the Kabaale pumping station (PS1), in Hoima district, Uganda, to a proposed marine storage terminal (MST) at Tanga, on the East African coast of Tanzania. The Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), will be shareholders in a pipeline company with Total E&P Uganda B.V. (TEPU), Tullow Uganda Operations Pty Ltd (TUOP) and CNOOC Uganda Limited (CUL) that will develop, construct and operate the pipeline. Total East Africa Midstream (TEAM) BV is the developer of the project and in due course would be expected to establish a project-specific company, such as East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) BV.
For nearly 2.5 years Andy Huckbody was the Biodiversity Coordinator, contracted to Total/EACOP to manage all aspects of the Biodiversity for the midstream Tilenga Project. A crucial component was ensuring compliance to the IFC PS6 (Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources) requirements. This involved a number of responsibilities, across approximately 1500km of pipeline corridor stretching from the Albertine Graben in Northern Uganda through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean and a proposed new port and ca. 2km long jetty structure for oil tanker loading, including:
Supervising all biodiversity studies undertaken by international and national consultants;
Advising the project on biodiversity assets, risks, potential impacts and their mitigation and management;
Ensuring compliance to IFC PS 6 and the requisite Critical Habitat Assessment;
Development of risk management and impact mitigation measures for all habitats and species potentially affected, including IUCN red-list species, large mammals, coastal and marine life, with coral reefs and globally rare fish such as the Coelacanth; and
The project was advised by a committee comprising international experts from a range of worldwide conservation organisations, to provide oversight and independent advice on the oil developments. Andy represented EACOP on this committee and participated in meetings, site visits and discussions on management of biodiversity and livelihoods.
Inspection visit to Murchison Falls NP
Critical Habitat Assessment
CHA is a PS6 process to identify significant biodiversity risks associated with a project. PS6 outlines the requirements for development in areas of Critical Habitat. CHA considers the conservation principles of threat (vulnerability) and geographic rarity (irreplaceability).
CHA is carried out at the landscape scale, using ecologically and/or administratively coherent Discrete Management Units (DMUs). Definition of DMUs should be informed by the biodiversity features of concern and their ecological requirements. DMUs are identified at a landscape or seascape scale, taking into account large-scale ecological processes where appropriate, and are therefore often much larger than the project concession or lease area itself. A preliminary review of the region’s ecology is thus carried out during the identification of DMUs. This highlights any potential Critical Habitat-qualifying features which might be present and informs delineation of DMUs at an appropriate scale. DMUs can be identified separately for individual species/sub-species or (more commonly) for a suite of species with broadly shared requirements
Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP)
The objective of the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is to provide a comprehensive strategy and specific, implementable actions aimed at the protection and conservation of biodiversity during the construction and operation of the pipeline.
The BAP was developed by Andy and represents an over-arching report capturing all biodiversity aspects of the EACOP project and incorporates the ESIA study, its baseline data; assessment of impacts and the work associated with their significance; and recommendations for mitigation, monitoring and management. It however extends beyond the aspects associated with reinstatement and restoration of the habitats and species and considers the future, longer term monitoring and management that may be required to ensure that the impacts created by pipeline construction are adequately mitigated. It also encompasses monitoring and management associated with operations of the pipeline and the above ground installations, such as Pump Stations and Valve Stations.
Andy developed a range of pre-emptive mitigation measures for pro-active application of conservation actions to enhance wildlife values prior to commencement of construction. These measures included partnering with international organisations such as UNDP to manage globally important habitats and their species and working in collaboration with Government Ministries to develop protection measures for fisheries, coral reefs and globally rare species such as the Coelacanth, coral species and turtles. Andy (with international and national specialists) developed and implemented a range of Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes ssp. Schweinfurthii) surveys, including genetic mapping of chimp communities, which might be adversely affected by the project and proposed conservation projects and initiatives for this iconic endangered species.
The big picture
As of October 2019 the project was effectively put on hold due to tax issues in Uganda and the vast majority of project staff and consultants demobilised.
Both countries are suffering sizeable reductions in biodiversity due to rapid agricultural expansion of previous bush land that was grazed by Masai et al and plans for industrialisation due to oil development. However, no real development has taken place, since the oil discoveries have not yet led to extraction and export due to tax issues. Huge areas of bush land and forest around Hoima in Uganda have been cleared and construction of a new international airport is well underway. All these habitat losses, influx of people and associated development are related to the oil developments, none of which have materialised to date, which has resulted in adverse biodiversity impacts, but without the finances resulting from the oil developments, which were required to mitigate such losses and implement sustainable development.
Below are some of the photographs taken by Andy during his role across Tanzania and Uganda.
Botany surveys in Uganda
Grey-Crowned Crane
Giraffe
Masai Lady
Tanzania landscape
Fishing boats Lake Victoria, this one named tomorrow in Swahili
Incoming pelicans
Saddle-billed stork
A gleaner collecting from the inter-tidal zone at Tanga
Mangrove Tanzania
Project ceremonial stone
Mangrove
Traditional fishing boat
Baobab tree
Masai herders
Bush land cleared for agriculture
Collecting water – a daily chore
Forest clearance for charcoal in valuable Chimpanzee habitat Uganda
Andy is Biodiversity Coordinator for TOTAL East African Crude Oil Pipeline, that with feeder lines, will run for over 1500km from near Lake Albert in Uganda across Tanzania to a new Marine Terminal at Tanga on the Indian Ocean.
Large areas within the ‘Area of Influence’ for the Project include habitats that qualify for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) definition of “Critical Habitats” (IFC, Performance Standard 6).
The Albertine Rift is one of Africa’s most significant biodiversity hotspots. It encompasses mountains, savannahs, tropical forests, wetlands and lake ecosystems, extending from Lake Albert in Uganda, southwards through DRC, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, to the south end of Lake Tanganyika. The tropical high forests of this area are exceptionally important for the conservation of biodiversity in general, for great apes in particular, and for the ecosystems services on which local communities depend. They harbour an astounding biodiversity; 52% of Africa’s bird species; 39% of it mammal species; 19% of its amphibians; 14% of its reptiles; and 14% of its plants. These forests serve as water catchments for major rivers, and they provide fuelwood, poles and timber for local communities.
Outside the protected area system, the forests of the Albertine Rift are being cleared at an unprecedented rate. Human populations in the area have been increasing rapidly, and as more people rely on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods, remaining large and small forest patches are cut down. Research indicates that there will be almost no forest remaining in community areas in 10 years.
I have lived on many camps in many different countries and often had responsibility for design, construction and operation of waste management facilities and wastewater treatment. In remote, economically developing countries this can be a real challenge. The camp I am on now in East Africa is well designed, with a well functioning sewage system and effluent polishing reed bed, which even has banana and other plants established in it.
It is nice to see a well run effluent system, as over the years I have worked on many designs:
initially for ecological enhancement;
then I designed reed beds, as Project Manager, for highway run-off for the National Rivers Authority R&D programme, ca. 20 years ago, but as I went overseas to work, the ensuing NRA publication did not have my name on it, which was a pity!;
for several camps in the Caucasus, then West African countries i designed effluent polishing reed beds to reduce the final nutrient loading, as over the years I often found that the stated treatment capacity of the procured system was often not delivered and/or the cleaning regime lead to damage to the microbes in the facility.
Turning to solid waste; I spent huge amounts of time on camps designing solid waste separation, handling and treatment systems, including procuring large industrial incinerators for hazardous waste, medical waste and food-contaminated plastics. It is good to see on this camp the waste segregation facilities appear to work well, especially with regards to the food waste, ink cartridges and batteries.
Andy is providing Biodiversity Management for a new pipeline in Africa which involves assessments in compliance to IFC PS6 Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources.
At least 17 people have been killed and 12 others injured in an attack on a Turkish restaurant in Burkina Faso’s capital, police said Monday. Two terrorist attackers have been killed by security forces.
Such a shame, Ouaga was a very pleasant, quite peaceful city when I lived there in 2014.
I spotted this Quercus petraea growing in the depression of a conifer tree in a huge coniferous plantation in the Brecon Beacons. There isn’t an oak tree in sight, but regeneration from the old seed bank from the original woodland species is always a give away to the land’s natural habitat. It reminds me of an ecological evaluation I carried out some 29 years ago in Shropshire, which was an oak woodland, but my application of the (brand new) NVC system revealed its true identity as an ash woodland – as inter alia, the only seedlings growing were ash in soil disturbed by a large badger sett.
There have been some interesting articles in the media recently regarding potential conflict in Central Asia over water; linked to power generation and agricultural irrigation.
Huckbody Environmental has been involved in several aspects of this story, both in hydropower and electricity distribution and therefore has a very good insight into the issues.
A few years ago Andy Huckbody was commissioned by World Bank to undertake an HSE audit of the world’s largest hydropower project in Tajikistan, Rogun Hydropower. This lies at the heart of the water resource and power generation issue, being towards the top of the river cascade.
3 years ago Andy Huckbody was engaged by World Bank to undertake a regional EIA of the 2000km electricity power line, export and distribution system CASA http://www.casa-1000.org/ .
In Central Asia, a crisis is brewing over water and electricity. The Soviet-era system in which the five countries of the region shared their resources has broken down, leaving some facing water shortages and others chronic power cuts. Instances of small-scale unrest have already occurred, but some warn this could be just the beginning.
On a freezing night in January 2009 a catastrophic power cut plunged swathes of the Tajik capital Dushanbe into darkness.
At one of the city’s maternity hospitals back-up generators failed and vital breathing equipment shut down, leaving doctors battling to keep two newborn baby girls alive.
Saymuddin Dustov, father of one of the girls, Pariso, frantically rang around friends to find an alternative power source.
For two hours, as his friends struggled to drag a 200kg (31-stone) generator up five flights of stairs in pitch darkness, Dustov sat in a cold, candlelit ward watching his daughter struggling to breathe.
“I could see that she just didn’t have enough strength to keep going,” he says.
At two in the morning, after a life lasting four hours, baby Pariso died.
She was not the only child to die in Tajikistan that winter as temperatures plunged close to the lowest levels in living memory and the country’s faltering power supply network collapsed.
The crisis was a stark demonstration that the complex network of shared power and water supplies that had served all five Central Asian republics in Soviet times was no longer working.
This system was based around a simple principle.
Three republics – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan were rich in energy resources, while the other two – Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan – had plentiful water supplies held in huge high-altitude reservoirs. They all had to work together to ensure there was water for the crops in the spring and summer, and electricity for everyone in the winter.
Without water in the region’s two great rivers – the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya – vital crops in the downstream agricultural powerhouses would die.
Without power, life in the upstream countries would be unbearable in the freezing winters.
“The potential for disagreements always existed,” says Kazakh political scientist Rasul Jumali. “But disputes were always resolved by Moscow.”
Then in 1991 the USSR fell apart and each country was left to face its problems on its own.
“It was food security for the downstream countries versus energy security for the upstream ones,” says Moscow-based political scientist Andrei Kazantsev.
“Either one side was going to freeze in the winter, or the other side was going to be left with nothing to eat all year.”
Though they could have continued to share and co-operate – and for a few years they did – for the energy-rich downstream countries it was more profitable to sell gas and electricity to foreign buyers than to supply it to their penniless upstream neighbours.
So Uzbekistan started selling electricity to Afghanistan in 2009, and pulled out of the Central Asian supply system altogether.
Baby Pariso’s death was one of the consequences.
Another was that Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan had to start using more water to generate electricity in the winter, so less reached agricultural lands in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan during the growing season.
Now all across Central Asia more and more people are finding themselves short of either power or water.
Asima Dalanbay: We can’t live here without water
Asima Dalanbay is one. She’s been living in southern Kazakhstan for 40 years and used to make a good living growing sugar beet. However, seven years ago – in the fateful year 2009 – the water supply from across the border in Kyrgyzstan dried up.
Now she grows what she can with water laboriously pumped from a borehole, but parched, barren fields surround her home, stretching as far as the eye can see.
Like her children and many of her neighbours, Asima is thinking of leaving.
“If this continues there is no other choice,” she says. “We can’t live here without water.”
But some parts of Kyrgyzstan also rely on water from across an international border.
Retired school teacher Kapar Toktoshev doesn’t look like the kind of person to get involved in a mass brawl, but in 2014 that’s exactly what happened.
“This is where we confronted Tajiks when they turned off the irrigation water in the summer,” he explains as we walk up a dusty road on the edge of his village high up in the mountains on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
Kapar Toktoshev: The Tajiks diverted the river
“We just ran out of patience,” he says. “We threw stones at each other. The army had to intervene to keep us apart.”
Although Kyrgyzstan has plentiful water reserves, in the Soviet era the village was supplied with water from the nearest reservoir, which just happened to be in Tajikistan.
After independence in 1991 this minor fact of geography became much more important – and it didn’t help that populations on both sides of the border were growing.
“The Tajiks diverted the river to their own fields and our crops started dying,” says Toktoshev.
He shows me his own garden. It’s a bleak plot covered in dry grass and some spindly apricot trees.
“I can’t get anything to grow,” he says, echoing Asima Dalanbay in Kazakhstan. “There’s just not enough water.”
There is a clear risk of more incidents like this, but there is also the potential for political instability within any of the five countries.
Some argue that the unrest which led to the violent overthrow of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April 2010 was partly triggered by public fury at power cuts and rising energy prices.
When Uzbekistan withdrew from the central power supply system in 2009, Kyrgyzstan had to install expensive new power lines, and the cost of electricity roughly doubled at the start of 2010 in order to pay the bill. Domestic heating costs rose even more steeply.
There have been shortages in Uzbekistan too, in the wake of the decision to sell gas and electricity to foreign buyers.
In many small towns and villages people now live with just a few hours of power a day, while gas in large areas of the country has become a distant memory.
A school teacher in the Fergana Valley recently told the BBC – despite the risk of being punished for dissent – that hardly any trees were now left in his home town, Rishtan, because of the demand for firewood.
“Even our schools don’t have fuel,” he said.
“Every day the pupils take turns to bring in firewood from home to heat the classroom. This is how our children study in winter.
“The government is selling gas to foreign countries while we – the people of Uzbekistan – have no fuel or power in winter, and are freezing.”
Bad government, corruption and human rights abuses are coupled with soaring prices and mass migration in search of work across the region.
Add into the mix the growing numbers of disaffected young men joining extremist groups, and the fact that war in Afghanistan is edging ever closer to the Uzbek and Tajik borders, and nightmare scenarios are not hard to imagine.
“No-one really knows what kind of explosion this could lead to – and when,” says Kazakh analyst Rasul Jumali.
“The most optimistic scenario is that things stay as they are,” agrees Russian analyst Andrei Kazantsev. “The most pessimistic one is complete catastrophe and the emergence of a string of failed states.”
Tajikistan’s largest hydro-electric power station, Nurek, provides two-thirds of the country’s power
For Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan the obvious solution to their chronic power problems would be to build more power stations, and both have hatched ambitious plans.
The biggest project currently on the horizon is the massive Rogun hydroelectric plant in the mountains of southern Tajikistan, which could become the highest dam in the world (335m) if investors can be found to finance it.
Its reservoir would take 16 years to fill to capacity, with obvious knock-on effects for the Amu Darya in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
But the plant would transform Tajikistan into a major regional energy supplier, and make the power cuts that cost baby Pariso her life a thing of the past.
Uzbekistan’s strong-man president, Islam Karimov, who died in September, made no secret of his objections to Rogun – and to a smaller project at Kambarata in Kyrgyzstan.
“What will happen to those who live in the downstream countries?” he asked in an angry speech in 2012.
“How much water will we have tomorrow if they build these barriers on the rivers? This could lead to regional confrontation and even war.”
Meanwhile ordinary people do what they always do and try to get by.
In the village of Tajmahal, in the mountains of eastern Tajikistan, father of four Shodmon Kholov is getting ready for the winter.
Once upon a time Shodmon and his family had 24-hour electricity to heat their home. Now they rely on more basic methods.
As I visit, the whole family is busy making briquettes out of cow dung, which they will use to keep the stove burning through the cold winter months.
“We only have two-to-three hours of electricity [per day] in winter,” says Shodmon. “We use the cow dung to keep the stove burning and the house warm. We usually need around eight briquettes in the morning and another eight in the afternoon.”
Cow-dung briquettes are left to dry on the wall of Shodmon Kholov’s house
Ironically, Kholov’s home is just 20 minutes’ drive from Tajikistan’s main hydroelectric power station, Nurek.
It was built in 1961 and produces two-thirds of the electricity currently consumed in the country, but this is nowhere near enough to meet demand.
Kholov is philosophical.
“With time they sort it out and we’ll have power round the clock,” he says.
