Water and environment sector review
Sep 26, 2017
supplement
Is pay-as-you- fetch sustainable?
By Owen Wagabaza
A few metres away from me, two boys raise their voices against each other. “Don’t go ahead of me, you will stir the water and make it dirty,” Ayub Bakunda tells his younger brothers Ziad Bakunda and Anthony Baliruno.
Though Ziad listened to his younger brother and obliged, Baliruno did not, saying: “I want clean water, yet this one is stirred and dirty,” Baliruno reasoned, as he waded further into the pond. Stunned by what I was seeing, I moved closer to Baliruno and asked him what they use the water for.
“We use it for bathing, cooking, washing and drinking. We only boil it when we have time,” Baliruno says. Ironically, just about 100 metres away from the pond is a not functional borehole.
According to Baliruno, when the borehole broke down, residents resorted to fetching water from the pond because they did not have money to repair the borehole. It is Bulindo village, Mijwala subcounty, Sembabule district.
Residents of Lira municipality queuing to collect water after the water supply system broke down. The Water as Business model is meant to make communities active in maintaining water points
This is not an isolated scenario. Operation and maintenance of the available water facilities remains one of the biggest challenges to the provision of safe water in Uganda The functionality rate for Uganda stands at 88% for rural and 89% for urban areas.
According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, out of the estimated 109,000 rural water point sources in the country, 16,350 sources are not providing water as expected. The assistant commissioner for rural water supply in the Ministry of Water and Environment, Eng. Christopher Tumusiime, says low functionality is caused by operation and maintenance failures.
“Apart from leading to breakdown of sources, poor operation and maintenance contributes to contamination of water, hence, undermining the goal of improving the quality of life through the provision of safe and clean water,” Tumusiime says. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THIS STORY
Water key in realising Vision 2040
By Owen Wagabaza
The water sector is central in contributing to the country’s drive towards transformation from a peasant to an industrial and middle income country by 2040.
Broadly, the availability of adequate water resources is critical to hydropower development, agricultural production, health, industrial development, tourism development and adaptation to climate and climate change effects. Below, we look at how the water sector is faring on this point.
Rural water sector
The main technology options used for water supply improvements in rural areas include protected springs (18%), shallow wells (23%), deep boreholes (44%), piped water schemes (gravity-fed) and piped water schemes (pumped) (11%), valley tanks and rainwater tanks.
As of June last year, the national safe water coverage in rural areas was estimated at 67%, up from 65% in June 2015, with the functionality rate for rural water supplies reducing to 86%, down from 88% in June 2015.
According to the Ministry of Water and Environment sector performance review 2016, a total of sh94.28b was used by the Government to serve 850,192 persons with new improved water supplies, bringing the overall per capita cost for rural water supplies to sh110,887, less than sh116,897 for the 2014/2015 financial year.
People fetching water at a spring well. The main technology options used for water supply improvements in rural areas include protected springs and shallow wells
A total of sh12b was spent centrally by the Ministry of Water and Environment on continued implementation of multi-year gravity flow water supply schemes of Bukwo, Nyarwodho, Bududa and Butebo as well as the solarpowered mini-piped water schemes.
Urban water supply
Access to drinking water in urban water currently stands at 71%. Of the 274 gazetted urban centres, 112 are currently being managed by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, leaving the 162 under the responsibility of the Ministry of Water and Environment, Urban Water Supply and Sewerage department through various water authorities and private operators.
Of the towns under the environment ministry, a total of 60 presently do not yet have any piped water supply system. A total of 36 schemes are currently being managed by private firms working under management contract with the Ministry of Water and Environment.
Unlike in the rural water sector, the average per capita investment cost for new water facilities increased to sh229,250 in the 2015/16 financial year, from sh157,500 the previous financial year.
“The practice in the sector is now to invest in large multiyear schemes, which supply water to clusters of towns, with surface water abstraction and conventional treatment, which partly explains the apparent increase in per capita investment costs,” reads part of sector performance report 2016. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THIS STORY
Rapid population growth fueling environmental degradation
By Owen Wagabaza
The 2011 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme, under the theme Sustainability and Equity:
A Better Future for All, warned that development in the world’s poorest countries could be halted or even reversed by the mid-century unless bold steps are taken immediately to slow climate change and prevent further environmental damage.
The report identified Uganda as one of the least developed countries having at least a third of its population poor due to environmental degradation.
In December last year, President Yoweri Museveni declared war on environmental degradation, walking over 3km across the Mpologoma swamp and bridge on the Mbale-Tirinyi road in eastern Uganda.
This was after the country was hit by long droughts and starvation. Over the years, the Ministry of Water and Environment has come up with measures to protect the environment.
Activities to restore wetlands are ongoing in many districts
Below, we look at how the environment sector is fairing. Wetlands management The percentage of Uganda’s area covered by wetlands is estimated at 10.9%. In the last financial year, six Management Plans, covering an area of 838 km2 were completed, bringing the total area of wetlands under management plans at 2,968 sq.km.
With an estimated wetland area of 26,330km2, this translates to 11.3% of the wetlands with a wetland management plan. Activities to restore wetlands are still ongoing in many districts.
Among the measures being undertaken is the complete demarcation of a number of wetlands around the country. So far, according to the Ministry of Water and Environment Sector Performance Report 2016, three contractors have supplied the pillars and three consultants are being procured to develop wetland management plans.
Surveyors and local leaders have been mobilised to participate in the demarcation and management of the planning process. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON THIS STORY
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