President Museveni is optimistic the newly-opened African Water and Sanitation Academy (AWASA) will help Africa’s campaign of providing access to clean water for all as stipulated in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Six.
AWASA, one of the projects launched February 17 on the sidelines of the ongoing 22nd African Water and Sanitation Congress (Afwasa 2025) at Speke Resort Munyonyo, is a centre of excellence aimed at improving water and sanitation sector performance on the continent.
The academy, with headquarters at the NWSC International Resource Centre in Bugolobi, Kampala, will be a model institute for Africa on water and sanitation innovations. It will collaborate with regional centres across the continent.
In his remarks delivered by the Third Deputy Prime minister, Rukia Nakadama, the President applauded the move by Afwasa to establish this institution.
“It is clear that broadly speaking a diversity of challenges have plagued the water and sanitation sector in Africa – which have shaped the way the water and sanitation sector should be managed,” President Museveni noted.
He added: “Awasa must nurture a culture of self-belief amongst its member utilities if the Congress theme of ‘Water And Sanitation For All: A Secure Future For Africa” is to be realized.
“Utility managers and experts need to devise homegrown solutions to address African water and sanitation challenges. This calls for continued research and development, and competence-based skills development building leadership capacity.
“It is against this background that the Cabinet of Uganda approved the hosting and operationalization of the African Water and Sanitation Academy (AWASA). In this regard, I would like to applaud and thank Afwasa for choosing Uganda, as the host for this Academy.”
According to Afwasa officials, the primary objective of AWASA is to build the capacity of managers of water and sanitation companies and utilities, as well as decision-makers in the sector in Africa in the various aspects of leadership and change management. This will be achieved by combining in an innovative way scientific, technical and governance aspects of the water and sanitation sector.
President Museveni noted that rapid population growth, increased rate of urbanization, increased environmental degradation, erratic climatic changes and depletion of water resources are some of the factors blamed for Africa’s water and sanitation problems.
As many other African countries, including Uganda, are lagging in achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Six, which declares the importance of providing clean water and sanitation for all in 2030 as set by the United Nations Assembly.
With just five years to the SDG Six target, time is against Africa where an estimated 440 million people currently lack access to clean water while 779 million people don’t have basic sanitation services.