MPs urge govt to restore funding for piped water expansion

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The prolonged drought in many parts of the country has severely affected farmers as many water sources have dried up.

In Teso, conflicts have already emerged as the Iteso accuse the Karamojong of driving their large herds to graze in Teso, a region that has also run out of pasture and water.

Besides that, water for human consumption in Teso is currently a hurdle as women spend hours queuing at the few surviving boreholes to fetch water.

Local authorities in most villages in Teso have reported a rise in domestic violence, as men suspect their wives of infidelity due to the long hours spent at boreholes.

MPs on national resource committee at one of the drilled boreholes in Amuria meant to pump half a million liters of water. (Photo by Godfrey Ojore)

“It takes you three hours to fetch water due to the large number of women. Most boreholes have dried up, while the few working have low water volumes to feed the large population,” said Janet Amoding from Aukot sub-county, Soroti District.

However, the remedy to this is connecting all villages to the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), which sources water from reliable places such as Awoja, which has never dried up.

On Friday, the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources, headed by Soroti City East MP Herbert Edmund Ariko, visited the Bugisu and Teso regions to assess the progress of NWSC in connecting water to rural areas under the Service Acceleration Scale-up Project, launched in 2017.

According to NWSC deputy managing director Eng. Johnson Amayo, the project was initially receiving sh30 billion from the government, enabling the institution to extend piped connections to 2,000 km across the country.

“However, the budget for the project has been reduced to the extent that we now connect only 300 km of piped water network. That means we shall not reach as many places as required,” Eng. Amayo said.

The committee was informed that the budget for the project had been reduced to sh1 billion, which Eng. Amayo said was inadequate to facilitate their work.

“Every village within NWSC operations must have one water point. By extending the piped network, we also prioritised poor urban communities, but we are unable to meet that target,” Eng. Amayo explained.

Committee chair Ariko stressed the need for increased allocation to NWSC so that more people can access water.

“In the next budget cycle that has started and with the budget framework paper being approved, we are recommending that the dwindling funding, which has affected NWSC’s ability to satisfy its clients, should be increased,” Ariko said.

Ariko also criticised the government for failing to pay water bills, an issue he said is crippling the institution.

“The biggest customers of NWSC are government institutions such as the defence forces, prisons, and hospitals, among others. Many of these have accumulated unpaid water bills amounting to sh97.5 billion. Yet NWSC is obligated to pay VAT on these unpaid bills, meaning the institution has to use its own resources to meet its statutory obligations of paying 18% VAT on bills that have not been collected,” Ariko said.

He further revealed that companies that used to supply pipes to NWSC on credit have stopped due to non-payment.

A man wheeling water from Awoja to Soroti city to sell. (Photo by Godfrey Ojore)

“Even when we propose figures, sometimes the Ministry of Finance further reduces them. As a committee, we propose a reinstatement of sh30 billion for the Service Acceleration Scale-up Project,” Ariko said.

Rationalisation of water in Soroti

NWSC Soroti manager Peter Ebwaat said the increase in clients has stretched the level of supply.

Initially, Ebwaat said the Awoja plant, which currently supplies water to three additional districts—Amuria, Kalaki, and Kaberamaido—was designed to supply seven million litres of water.

“So, we have to rationalise water supply to ensure all the districts get water. However, we have got two boreholes drilled in Amuria District that we are going to pump water from to supply Amuria,” Ebwaat said.

Amuria uses three million litres of water monthly, but with the new boreholes that have been drilled and are now awaiting the installation of water pumps, the district will be receiving half a million litres of water daily.