Water utility company, NWSC, has asked government for Shs 90 billion to supply clean and safe piped water to every village in the country by 2019.
Speaking at their end-of-year thanksgiving dinner at the International Resource Center in Bugolobi on Friday, National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) managing director Dr Silver Mugisha said they need Shs 30 billion from government per year to achieve the water-for-all goal.
Each village should have a public stand post (tap) from where residents can access clean water at an affordable Shs 50 per 20-litre jerrycan as envisaged in government’s ambitious Vision 2040, which aims to take the country into the middle-income bracket by 2020.
Mugisha, who has overseen NWSC’s revenues grow from Shs 16 billion to Shs28 billion per month in the last two years, said the utility company is in good stead to supplement the government campaign in availing water to more than 10,000 villages across the country.
At the same event, Mugisha also announced the corporation’s plan of continuing to expand physical infrastructure; including pipeline network, geographical and service coverage.
In the past year, NWSC has extended its services from 61 to 174 towns and the customer base increased by 495,000 new connections from 418,031. The total distance of pipes laid stretched from 80 to 1,000 kilometres per year between 2013 and end of September, 2016.Â
According to its Strategic Direction 2016-2021, NWSC will take over more upcountry towns. Mugisha disclosed that new areas already earmarked for takeover in 2017 include Kumi and Karamoja regional towns, where a jerrycan of water currently goes for as high as Shs 2,000.
A number of multibillion projects such as Katosi treatment plant, aimed at boosting water supply in Kampala Metropolitan area with 160 million litres per day by 2019, will also take off next year.
Other major projects to start in 2017 include the Kalisizo-Rakai and Akagera-Isingiro treatment plants, which will provide water to the dry belt in the western cattle corridor districts.
Meanwhile, NWSC recognized best performing staff members in various sections during Friday’s dinner. Water and environment minister Sam Cheptoris and third deputy premier Kirunda Kivejinja, who represented vice president Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi as chief guest, attended the function.
mugalu@observer.ug