Urban poor pay expensively for cheap water

The sight of a man drinking discoloured water from a tap in Gayaza market is disturbing. What is more alarming is that this is not piped water and therefore, untreated. The tap water, connected to water tanks, comes from an underground spring.
National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) whose responsibility is to supply clean domestic and industrial water to Ugandans, last year added 108 km of pipes to their network. Now the corporation has 1,400Km of water pipes.
Two years ago, only 25 towns had access to piped water. Now, NWSC, together with the Ministry of Water and Environment serve a total of 125 towns.

But surprisingly, in an urban area such as Gayaza, this expansion remains a myth, according to residents. Those who can afford to, have water tanks in their compounds. They buy water from water tankers and sell it to other residents.
Christine Nabasa, a boutique owner, has lived with this frustration for some time.
“Four months ago, my landlord did not have a water tank. Every morning, we would wake up at 6am to go to someone else’s tank. If you were late, it was almost impossible to get water because of the number of people there.”
Owners of the tanks fetch the water from Lake Victoria and nearby swamps. In the wet season, they sell rain water.

“At the boutique, I use two jerry cans of water a day, which cost Shs800 each in the rainy season, and between Shs1,000 and Shs1,500 in the dry season,” says Nabasa.
For Alice Nakamanya, another shop owner, her frustration comes from the fact that even in the rainy season, the water prices remain high.
“I use four jerrycans in a day and each costs me Shs1,000. Now that the rains have started, they have reduced to Shs500. We tried to interest our landlord in connecting to NWSC but he refused, saying that the water supply is almost nonexistent.”

Demand and supply issues
A 20-litre jerrycan of water costs Shs44.7 according to the NSWC tariffs for domestic consumption. For public consumption, the tariff of those who sell water to others is Shs27.5 per 20 litre jerrycan.

The question is why people in urban areas choose to pay a higher price to water carriers, instead of paying for legal water connections on the national grid.
In places such as Gayaza and Katooke in Wakiso District, the issue is not that they are not connected to the national network; rather, it is that the water supply is irregular.
“There are taps here which are connected to NWSC, like where I live, but sometimes we go for weeks without water,” says Nakamanya.

In Katooke - Nansana in Wakiso District, the water comes very early in the morning.
“The water from my tap flows at 3 am,” says Faisal Mukisa, adding: “If we forget to wake up early to collect it, we depend on water carriers who charge Shs500 per jerrycan. My household uses 10 jerrycans per day.”
The irregular supply of water has given opportunity to enterprising people to make a killing from the water market.
At a borehole on the outskirts of Gayaza Trading centre, Sulaiman Shiruma is watching over a water carrier tying jerrycans on a motorcycle.

“Each water carrier pays Shs4,000 per day and can fetch an unlimited number of jerry cans. We have a lot of business in the dry season. It is funny how NWSC will pump a lot of water to the taps in the rainy season, but in the dry season, the taps remain empty.”
Shiruma says business is booming because people trust the quality of borehole water.
Ivan Azariah, a water carrier buys water from the borehole and supplies it.
“At Shs500 per jerrycan, I am the cheapest around here,” he says. “I make a profit of Shs200 per jerrycan and I carry between 13 and 20 jerrycans a day.”

The expansion phase
Sam Apedel, the public relations manager NWSC, says the body is aware of the shortfalls in supply.
“Population growth has driven up the demand for clean piped water. Originally, Gaba Water Works was supplying only Kampala, but now, we are expanding to cover Kampala metropolitan area which includes Wakiso, Mukono, Nansana and Kira.”
A construction boom has seen development in areas which previously had low populations. However, the response of NWSC has been slow.
The demand for water in Kampala Metropolitan area is 240m litres per day.

NWSC can only produce 200m litres due to ongoing expansions. Before this, it was less.
“We are increasing the water in the Naguru reservoir to serve populations in Ntinda, Kisaasi and Naalya,” said Apedel.
To cover the population in Gayaza, NWSC is constructing a reservoir in Kanyanya, and a motorised borehole in Namulonge.
A booster station is being built at Centenary Park which is nearing completion.
“We have secured funds to expand the water works in Ggaba and build water treatment plants in Katosi and Kigo to meet the growing demand,” said Apedel.

Water theft
Nakamanya says water theft is one of the reasons why the residents of Gayaza have a water problem.
“When we demand for explanations at the NWSC office in Kasangati, we are told people break the underground pipes and channel the water to other places.”
“Sometimes the water pipes break and NWSC takes a long time to repair them,” says Shiruma. “So while these pipes are broken, people collect as much free water as they can, yet those with legitimate connections go without the water.”
Apedel decries the theft, saying it hinders their work in extending water supply.

“We work with the police to arrest the culprits and fine them. We estimate the amount of water one has stolen then we multiply it by an estimated period of two years.”
Clearly, it is cheaper and much healthier to have a legal water connection.
However, the intermittent water supply in Kampala and other urban areas means the urban poor have to depend on water carriers for the service.

Water tariffs up
National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) last increased the tariffs for water in 1998, but due to inflation and costs such as electricity, there has been an indexation exercise that has seen the unit cost of water go up.