The National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) has revealed that it is ready to serve over 341,000 people in Gulu City and surrounding areas in a bid to increase access to clean water to all Ugandans.
This was revealed by the NWSC Managing Director Dr Eng Silver Mugisha, who said that the Government of Uganda through NWSC, is constructing the Gulu Water Supply and Sanitation project to serve over 341,000 people in Gulu, Karuma, Kamdini, Minakulu, Bobi, Palenga, Koro- Abili and the surrounding areas.
According to Dr Mugisha, the project will draw water from River Nile at Karuma, pump it to designated distribution points and supply it to Ugandans within the specified radius.
Gulu Water Supply and Sanitation Project
In a bid to successfully implement this new NWSC campaign for the provision of safe and clean water in Northern Uganda, the project will encompass the following;
- A bulk water transmission main from Karuma to Gulu spurning 72km.
- The Transmission Main will supply 30 million litres per/day capacity water intake at Karuma.
- The project shall have a 10 million liters per/day capacity Nile water treatment plant.
It will also include two (2) 5.3million litres capacity water reservoirs, a Water Pumping station, a SCADA system for the new plant and supply system, plus capacity to supply 42 waterborne toilets.
The objective of the project is improving access to safe water and sanitation for over 170,000 people.
Dr Mugisha revealed that the first phase of the project is already being executed and so far, the civil works at the water intake in Karuma are complete.
If all other factors are kept constant, works on the treatment plant, reservoirs and pipeline are expected to commence in June next year and end by June 2023.
During a tour of the project, NWSC MD Dr Eng Mugisha said that the corporation is working towards 100% water and sanitation for all residents of Gulu City.
“A few years back, our water source Oyitino dam and the taps in Gulu dried up as a result of the extreme weather conditions in the area.
NWSC through GoU support and working with other development partners embarked on plans to boost water supply reliability in the area,” Dr Mugisha said.
Dr Mugisha revealed that NWSC is working on both short and long term interventions, whereby the short term interventions already completed include;
- Upgrading Oyitino dam water storage capacity from 2.7B litres of water to now 4.2B litres of water.
- Improving daily water production from 3 million litres of water per day to now 10million litres of water supplied
- Rehabilitation of the waste water stabilization ponds.
- Construction of a Fecal sludge treatment plant at Cubu.
- Upgrading existing sewers and laying new sewer mains in Gulu City
- Upgrading the Oyitino dam pumping system from 5 million litres of water pay capacity to 10 million litres per day.
The corporation also installed a 400KVA generator at Oyitino Dam and interconnected Oyitino Dam 1 to Oyitino Dam 2.
The two will ably supply the city during the hard dry season.
They rehabilitated of Gulu waterworks, upgraded Gulu city distribution network, 200 community sewer connections, constructed 6 motorized boreholes with an installed capacity of up to 2.4milion litres of water per day are more of the short term interventions.
Responding to a request for prepaid meters, Dr Mugisha noted that prepaid meters are not a service to the people but a medium for efficient revenue collection for the company.
“It makes no sense buying prepaid meters of 1000USD each when some people don’t have water which is a basic need. Let us achieve 100% and then modernise,” he advised.
He also urged Gulu city residents to guard the environment jealously and reminded them of the recent effects of extreme weather conditions.
Upon completion, the two projects will cater to demand water services in Gulu and the surrounding towns up to the year 2040.