Minister confirms Ebal as NWSC board chairperson

Kampala-Water and Environment minister Ephraim Kamuntu yesterday confirmed Mr Christopher Ebal as the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) board chairperson.

Mr Ebal, who has been acting in the same position since last year, now takes full charge of a board which has been guiding the corporation since last year.

While opening the Africa Water Association Scientific Technical Council conference at the NWSC International Training Resource Centre yesterday, Prof Kamuntu commended Eng Ebal’s board for a good job done within the last year.

“In rural Uganda, 11 million people walk more than a kilometre to access clean water but in urban areas, I must commend Eng Silver Mugisha (NWSC MD) and team because coverage has increased to 78 per cent in the last one year and more people can now access clean water within 200 metres,” he said before a delegation of more than 40 water utilities across Africa.

He explained that the theme of the conference, ‘Solutions for accelerating water and sanitation access in Africa,’ is what government has been grappling with for the past 20 years but in the last one year, there has been a magical turnaround.

“Water is a very fundamental development issue and anyone who solves a water problem, has solved a fundamental development question. Government is facing challenges of increased population pressure due to urbanisation,” he said.

Mr Silver Mugisha, the NWSC managing director, said: “We are discussing how to eliminate exaggerations that make investment expensive.

In Uganda we managed to extend 300kms of water which previously stood at 80kms within one year through eliminating the procurement bureaucracies.”

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