Shs6b sewerage plant lies idle 4 years after construction

A Shs6 billion sewage treatment plant set up in Kiboga District by the Ministry of Water and Environment has remained underutilised, four years after being completed.

This, according to Daily Monitor findings, is due to the absence of residential houses and commercial buildings in Kiboga Town, which are connected to the sewer line.

The plant, which was built under the umbrella water authorities project, is located in Nasuuna Village, Kiboga Town Council.

“Majority of the residents here still use traditional pit- latrines yet this facility was meant to benefit those with waterborne toilets where human waste can easily reach the faecal sludge management facility  through the sewer system,” Mr Abasi Ssekiranda, the chairperson of Central umbrella board, which manages the facility, says.

The umbrella water authority’s project is aimed at improving sanitation and enhancing sustainable access to clean and safe water in rural areas.

Daily Monitor has learnt that a small volume of waste treated at the facility is ferried from the urban centres of Mubende and Hoima where dwellers own either ventilated pit latrines or water borne toilets.

“When the project was completed  in 2019 , the ministry also gave us  a sewage suction truck but because it was lying idle  at Kiboga Central police station, the battery got spoiled and it was eventually taken to the centre where it is much needed,” Mr Ssekiranda explains.

The facility was also expected to produce manure, which can be used in gardens.

When Daily Monitor visited the facility on January 29, it was deserted and a section of it bushy.

Kiboga Resident District Commissioner Mariam Nalubega decried the huge amount of money spent on a project, which residents are not benefiting from.

“When I had just been posted here, I visited the facility and I found it lying idle; when I talked to Mr Ssekiranda, he revealed to me that they never carried out research to establish whether that was the most needed project for the Kiboga,” she said. 

Ms Nalubega said it is now their responsibility as leaders to sensitise residents to embrace the project by constructing improved lavatory facilities that can enable the facility to run smoothly.

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A similar project worth Shs1.1b constructed in Kayunga Town, Kayunga District  is also still underutilised since residents are reluctant to erect water borne toilet facilities over the cost involved.