Ministry of Water sets up division for upkeep of rural water facilities
Feb 15, 2016
The division is responsible for development and coordinating strategies for sustainable operations and maintenance of rural water activities
The Ministry of Water and Environment has established a new and fully facilitated division to oversee, strengthen and ensure sustainability of operation and maintenance of rural water facilities.
The division dubbed ‘Infrastructure, Operation and Maintenance Division' under rural water supply and sanitation department, sits at the ministry's main offices in Kampala and was put in place recently.
This was revealed by Eng. Ahmed Sentumbwe, the assistant commissioner of the new division, while attending a stakeholder's dialogue on strengthening operation and maintenance of rural water facilities held at City Royal Hotel in Kampala on Monday.
Sentumbwe noted that the division was to put in place to address the functionality of rural water supply sources systems, which he said most of them are non-functional.
"After realizing that a big number of water sources in rural areas are non-functional, the ministry decided to put up the division so as to improve functionality of these sources to be able to enhance access to clean and safe water to rural areas and also meet the sector's targets," he said.
Sentumbwe further noted that the division is responsible for development and coordinating strategies for sustainable operations and maintenance of rural water activities including rural water supply development, infrastructure development and increase water supply coverage of rural areas from 65% to 79%.
The dialogue was organized by Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET), a national umbrella organization of civil society organization in the water and sanitation sector in partnership with International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC).
Jane Nabunnya Mulumba, country director, IRC noted that in the past, emphasis has only been put on infrastructure development and not much attention was given to post-construction support of water sources especially boreholes and other protected water sources.
"As CSOs, we are extremely happy that the ministry has put in place a division dedicated to address the issues related to operations and maintenance issues of rural water sources. This is a big mileage, we have a one-stop government center on OandM, we shall use it as a platform to learn, share and work towards improving water services, advocate for increased funding, and promote capacity building," she said.
She explained that during their work in rural communities, she noticed that one in three water sources in rural areas are non-functional.
Nabunnya attributed this to breakdown due to long term service, non-greasing of the machines, loose nuts of some machines and misuse by some members of the communities.
She called upon all CSOs and NGOs in the water and sanitation sector to give the division all the necessary support so to be able to achieve its goals and objectives.
The participants asked the rural water and sanitation department of the ministry of water and environment to advocate for increase in budget for operations and maintenance of rural water facilities from 12% to 15% before the end of the financial year.