Following a period of aggressive expansion, National Water and Sewerage Corporation working with Government of Uganda and Ministry of Water and Environment has expanded its geographical coverage from 26 to 253 towns and urban growth centers in the last 5 years.
NWSC is a public water utility wholly owned by the Government of Uganda. The Corporation is the largest urban water utility in Uganda, providing water and sewerage services in 253 towns and urban growth centers, serving over 10 million people.
NWSC has been named among the best performing government enterprises for the year 2017/2018. According to the Auditor General in the Financial Year 2017/2019, NWSC was the third best performing state Corporation coming after Bank of Uganda and National Social Security Fund which came first and second respectively.
For the period 2017/18 NWSC made a profit of Shs51.2b after taxes compared to Shs26.7b in the financial year 2016/2017.
According to the Managing Director NWSC Dr. Eng Silver Mugisha, the real story is in the additional number of Ugandans who now have access to safe clean drinking water. Geographical coverage has expanded from 26 towns in 2014 to 253 towns and rural growth centers in May 2019.
The Corporation’s strategic focus is to ensure water for all, while promoting innovations that will contribute to the socio–economic growth and transformation of Uganda while conserving the environment. This is in line with the overarching Government Policy of universal coverage as enshrined in the Vision 2040, National Development Plan (NDP II), Government (NRM) Manifesto, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6).
In line with the Government strategic aspiration of achieving universal access to water supply, the NWSC is implementing a three year project code named, “100% Service Coverage Acceleration Project (SCAP100)”.
The project focuses on ensuring universal and equitable access to safe water supply in all villages under NWSC jurisdiction, through the expansion of the water pipe network (8,000Km) and installation of new connections (140,000) among which include 20,000 Public Stand Pipes by 2020.
Furthermore, the Corporation is implementing varied downstream and upstream quick win investments in water production infrastructure under the Water Supply Stabilization Plans (WSSPs).
This is another component of the SCAP 100 aimed at improving water supply reliability through; construction of water reservoirs, booster stations and other mini projects to augment water production and supply, rehabilitation and construction of distribution and transmission mains, development of alternative water sources especially production wells, and intensification of the existing secondary and tertiary water networks.
The total financing requirement for SCAP100 over the three-year period is Ushs.213 billion which translates into an annual financing budget of Ushs.71 billion per annum. The Corporation has committed to finance 58% of the budget and GoU 42%.
This project focuses on villages with a sufficient network but limited public water points. It also serves villages close to the network and villages that are far off, but could be served from the existing network.
From the project commencement in July 2017 to March 2019, NWSC has achieved the following milestones:
- Water Mains Extensions (Km): The Corporation has installed 3,566 Km of new water mains from July 2017 to March 2019. The length of new water mains installed per annum has grown from 1000 Km to over 2000 Km. The total water pipe network now stands at 16,440 Km.
- New Water Connections (No.): From July 2017 – March 2019, the Corporation has installed 97,880. The number of new water connections installed per annum has grown from an average of 38,000 connections to over 50,000. The Corporation hopes to install over 60,000 new connections by the end of this Financial Year (2018/19). The total number of water connections as at 31st March 2019 stood at 637,350. 624,396
III. New Pro-poor Connections (No.): Premised on the equity principle; NWSC provides water to the poor living in urban settlements through the installation of Public Stand Pipes (PSPs) /Kiosks at a subsidized rate. As at 31st March 2019, the Corporation had installed 5,883 new PSPs under the SCAP 100 project in over 3,000 villages. The Corporation hopes to install over 3,000