Dr. Eng. Silver Mugisha, the Managing Director at the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) tipped Rotarians on effective service delivery while alluding to examples from his tactical administration skills at the 50-Year-Old Corporation where he has been Managing Director for the last 10 years.
Speaking to members of Rotary Kampala Ssese Islands at Kati Kati Restaurant on Thursday evening, Dr. Mugisha stated, “One of the things that have helped National Water and Sewerage Corporation to register tremendous growth is strategic clarity. If you work without a strategic plan, you’re just wasting your time.”
Dr. Mugisha told Rotarians that his administration seeks to achieve a number of government strategic priority areas including industrialization, Infrastructure Development, Skilling and WorkForce Development, Private Sector Involvement, and Organisational Health Sustainability.
“From the NDP III, we have derived our strategic plan, and if you are well conversant with it, one of the very key things there is industrialization, in the next three years of our plan, we want to see how we will have well serviced industrial parks across the country,” Dr. Mugisha, whose NWSC is considered one of the best public-sector utilities in Africa said.
“This year,” he said, “the Corporation will hit the 1.2 million total connections target- serving over 18 million Ugandans in urban settings and rural surroundings, with plans to serve over 25 million customers by 2026.”
He also told the Rotarians that the corporation, a fully government-owned agency but with a private sector mindset, has rolled out a performance monitoring and evaluation system, designed to augment the performance of staff, noting that a highly motivated workforce staff is fundamental towards the achievement of the Corporation’s water and sanitation for all goal.
“We are counting on our staff to help us achieve our water and sanitation agenda. Previously, we have been specializing in group work, giving incentives to staff as teams. By doing so, many have been free riding. Free riding by anybody in any organization is a form of corruption. The system will further aid a value for money and a fair system for promoting and rewarding staff. Lack of a fair system can create speculation and unfairness” he said.
Dr. Mugisha urged customers to boost the Corporation’s plans by paying bills on time, which according to him helps the utility abstract water, and pay for chemicals, power, and repair materials among other water production inputs.
Dr. Mugisha said that NWSC has completed most part of the process to address chronic water supply in the Kampala Metropolitan Service Area since it’s able to evacuate more water from the new Katosi Water treatment plant but is still working on plans to rebuild the infrastructure to serve their customers better.
In regard to “Clamping down on meter reading fraud”, Dr. Mugisha said the water utility body has since ordered ultrasonic meters to clamp down on the tampering. The new meters, already under pilot phase, will help NWSC to establish the correct water meter readings from meters that are being hampered by hidden magnets.
“We have also ordered real-time automatic reading devices to put on meters to give us information in real-time. If you try to tamper with it, we will know,” Dr. Mugisha said.
He said that there’s no reason why consumers should steal water, reasoning that at UGX. 100 for a 20-litre jerrycan for commercial consumers and UGX. 84 for the same charge to institutions, the charges are affordable.
Since 2013 when a new board took over the oversight function of the corporation, NWSC has experienced tremendous expansions due to the strategic plan that the management and the board put in place. This has seen the corporation expand its footprint from 23 towns where it stagnated from inception till 2013, to 280 today.
NWSC’s commitment to excellent service delivery, and Water and Sanitation for all, continues to be the heart of its business.
