National Water and Sewerage Corporation has showcased 30 engineering innovations that have helped the corporation push it agenda of water for all.
The innovations cover the fields of water quality, smart metering, waste to energy, asset management, water treatment, smart energy use, billing and innovative financial management.
World Engineering Day is celebrated annually on March 04. This year the event is being held under the Global theme “Engineering for a healthy Planet”
This is the first time NWSC is officially celebrating World Engineering Day under the theme “Celebrating NWSC’s Engineering Innovations and Technological Advances to Achieve Water for All”
Speaking at the event marked at the Ggaba Water Works, the Chairman of the NWSC Board Eng. Dr, Badru Kiggundu underscored the centrality of engineering to the provision of water and sanitation services in NWSC.
He challenged NWSC engineers to come up with home-grown solutions for engineering challenges in their day to day work. He advised the engineers to look at the impact of the innovation, cost implications and the expected outputs.
Kiggundu said “The innovations that we have witnessed today will go a long way to address some of the challenges that the Corporation is facing. My quest is that all our engineers think of more innovative solutions to address the challenges that are facing the corporation like the increasing non-revenue water due to technical and commercial losses.”
Dr. Kiggundu reiterated the commitment of the Board and Management to continue supporting and encouraging staff by providing opportunities for skilling them especially for tailor-made innovations that are relevant to the prevailing challenges in the Corporation.
The MD of NWSC Dr. Eng Silver Mugisha said the corporation has expanded its service footprint from 24 towns to 258 towns in the last 6 years because of the commitment of the corporation to innovation and smart operations.
Quoting Albert Einstein, Dr. Mugisha said you cannot solve problems by using the same level of thinking that created the problems. He said management of NWSC firmly believes that business as usual will not help meet the growing needs of our customers and their increasing expectations.
He said the corporation successfully designed and implemented its own billing system that has helped the corporation operate efficiently and save over 800 million in annual licensing fees.
Dr. Mugisha also said the NWSC in-house team had designed and tested a prepaid metering system and will partner with others to roll out the technology. He emphasized that the current priority is to ensure that people who do not have water get it.
He cited other innovations in water treatment through electrolysis, innovative financing approaches, smart energy use, converting waste to energy and production of organic fertilizers and energy saving briquettes.
Speaking at the event, the chairman of the technical committee of the NWSC Board George Runge said the theme “Celebrating NWSC’s Engineering Innovations and Technological Advances to Achieve Water for All” highlighted the need for continuous innovation in service delivery.
He said “globally and locally we are facing the challenge of sustainable and resilient infrastructure, pollution challenges of the resources e.g. water bodies, forests”.
Runge said, the challenge especially in Africa has been the limited resources to enable innovation and lack of adequate support from the authorities. He added that this can be solved using innovative management approaches.
The corporation will build a museum that will help tell the story of the evolution of water pump technology and other innovations in the water and sanitation sector.