How Uganda plans to address its 60 million litre water deficit
Children scramble for water at a spring in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb, in 2016. Access to safe piped water in urban areas stands at about 71 per cent.PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE
Kampala- Uganda has a deficit of 60 million litres of water a day, Dr Silver Mugisha, the managing director of National Water and Sewerage Corporation, has said.
“It is true that the current demand is about 300m litres a day and we are only able to supply 240m, so, we have a deficit,” Mr Mugisha said yesterday during the signing of loans by Ministry of Finance and the French government.
He was addressing the Minister of Finance, Mr Matia Kasaija, who was signing two loans aimed at addressing sanitation challenges in Kampala and south-western Uganda.
Mr Kasaija said the funding towards the Kampala Water-Lake Victoria Water Sanitation II project worth €150m (Shs723b) from Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) builds onto phase 1 of the project by increasing water coverage.
He said the project is vital in Uganda’s target for vision 2040, which prioritises access to safe piped water which stood at 70 per cent in rural areas and 71 per cent in urban areas in 2017. Government also signed €120m (Shs578b)loan directed to water and sanitation infrastructure for the south western cluster of Mbarara and Masaka to improve and expand the existing infrastructure.
However, Mr Mugisha said Uganda’s demand by 2032 is anticipated to have risen from 300m to 500m litres a day owing to population growth.
To mitigate the anticipated water shortage, NWSC is working with the Danish Business Finance to add another 135m litres a day moving from 400m to 530m.
Mr Kasaija appealed to National Environment Management Authority to protect the rivers and channels draining into the lake.
Faced with poor protection of the lake, Mr Kasaija said the country would be forced to spend a lot of money to clean the water.
