Umbrella water authorities boosted to enhance increased service delivery

CLEAN AND SAFE WATER

KAMPALA- In an effort to promote increased service delivery of water and sanitation in different parts of the country, umbrella authorities, managing water projects across the country, have been boosted with water pipes, water gutters and meters worth sh700m to enhance sustainable access to clean and safe water in rural areas.

The items procured by the Ministry of Water and Environment were dispatched by the co-ordinator of Umbrella Authorities  Eng. Godfrey Hashakimaana and the principal Engineer Alan Mugabi from the water ministry and other officials.

Speaking during the handover of items to the different umbrella managers across the country, Hashakimaana said umbrella authorities were given a mandate to manage over 1,200 water projects which need to be given support in operation and maintenance, which he said is a lot of work.

He said currently, there are about six Umbrella Authorities which are Karamoja based in Moroto, South western based in Kabale, mid-western based in Kyenjonjo, central  based in Wakiso, northern supporting North and West Nile region based in Lira and eastern umbrella supporting the Eastern region including Teso  and is based in Mbale.

"As a way of supporting umbrellas, we encourage the way of intensifying connections, we are providing meters to make sure that all our customers are metered and we expect our customers to pay for the services that we offer," he said.

"Our tariffs are not to discourage people from connecting on the systems but they are very low to a level where many people can get connected to the water system because our interest is to ensure that a poor person is able to access the water service provided by the ministry, "he said.

According to Charles Muwonge, the principal communications person at the ministry, umbrellas were established in 2002 starting from Kabale with funding from the Austria Development Corporation.

"Due to the good achievements from the first umbrella in south western Uganda, we thought we would create other umbrellas to cover the whole country and we are able to create more five which are able to cover the whole country," he added.  

He said they have got large towns, small towns and rural growth centres with National Water and Sewerage Corporation managing 218 large towns, whereas umbrellas are managing 223 small and rural growth centres in addition to those which need support, making a total of over 1,000 small towns.

He said as they intensify operations and maintenance on top of management, they have got a programme of rehabilitating and repairing water projects infrastructure to resurrect their performance.

He said national water and umbrella organisations have got management models, although they all strive at one goal of providing a utility service, saying umbrellas have also been transformed into a national utility.

Martin Wamalwa, the manager of Southwestern umbrella for water and sanitation, said Southwestern umbrella has embraced three models of managing water projects.

"We are using a direct management model where our staff members are used; we also employ scheme operators to take care of the systems on our behalf and private operator systems which has been in existence in the ministry for some time.

"We are testing these three models to see which one is more vibrant and in the due course, we shall select one of the best models," he said.

He said the pipes given out were going to be distributed to customers and also ensure that all the water is metered to avoid non-revenue water loss.