MPs laud national water on use of €150 million loan

KAMPALA —Members of Parliament on the Committee on National Economy have hailed the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) for apt utilisation of a €150 million loan.

Parliament in 2011 and 2019 approved the loan from the French Development Agency (AFD) and other partners to construct the Katosi Water Treatment Plant in Mukono district between 2018 and 2021.

The committee, chaired by Hon. John Bosco Ikojo, toured the plant on Thursday, 01 September 2022 to ascertain first-hand, the performance of the loan.

According to Ikojo, the committee was impressed with the facility and by standards, is one of the best performing loans unlike several others that have had challenges.

“They have done the construction of the pump house, treatment plants, but now the aspects of distribution still remain a challenge. We know that in the future, they will come to the committee to request for money,” he said.

Hon. Robert Migadde, the vice chairperson of the committee said that the treatment plant was a role model facility that other actors needed to emulate.

“I am happy for the people in and around Kampala – but I am not happy for the people on the islands. We need water to reach the island area – people here stay around the water but do not have clean water,” Migadde said, adding that there was need to connect more Ugandans to the central sewer system.

Hon. Geoffrey Macho, the Busia Municipality MP, said that he had travelled with different Parliament committees to assess the performance of loans, but this particular case had stood out of the pack.

Buhweju District Woman MP, Hon. Oliver Koyekyenga, also commended NWSC and advised that they needed to sort out the several water stressed areas outside Kampala City.

Johnson Amayo, the Deputy Director, Technical Services, said that they were able to increase water production by 160,000 m3 per day, resulting in improved water supply to customers in the Kampala metropolitan area.

Despite a provision for future expansion to 240,000m³per day at the plant, Amayo revealed that NWSC needed an additional £45 million to complete the project, of which €35 million would be sunk into pumping water and providing sewerage services to the urban poor.