The National Water and Sewerage Corporation has and continues to register immense success in a number of aspects say; infrastructure development, customer base expansion, business growth and so much more. However, Non-Revenue Water (NRW) reduction continues to hinder the corporation’s “100%” mark.
The Corporation recorded Global NRW of 33.5% in the FY 2019/20, compared to 29% in the FY 2018/19. Kampala Water, where it is most acute, registered NRW of 39.5% at the said time and most blame has been put on misuse of fire hydrants, not necessarily by the Uganda Police but by bulk water sellers as well.
Note that, in relation to its mandate, National Water and Sewerage Corporation is to provide sufficient fire hydrants to support the police department of fire and rescue services whose responsibility lies in utilizing these fire hydrants as designated and avoid abuse.
Following a series of debates that have loomed the airwaves for the past few months over misuse of fire hydrants, the NWSC and UP, were compelled to rendezvous and discuss a way forward in regard to Fire hydrant safety.
Despite prior meetings, the parties hadn’t come to a consensus on what to do and how. However, on Tuesday 10th May 2022, both parties met at the Kampala Water Headquarters offices on Jinja road and had a rather in-depth discussion in regard to water theft via fire hydrants all over the Kampala Metropolitan region.
During the meeting, the Deputy Director of Fire Prevention and Rescue Services, ACP Kahinda Hassan shared a report of the status of the fire hydrants in the Kampala Metropolitan region. He reported about those that have been prominently removed or buried due to civil works within the city. He also mentioned that a good number of hydrants lack covers, so in the event of a downpour, they get silted with rubbish, making it difficult to use them. There was also the issue of missing hydrant plates, rushed spindles which make it hard to operate in the event that there is a fire, low pressure and more. So clearly, vandalism so as to steal water, has been at play for a while.
These issues were clearly addressed by the General Manager Kampala Water, Eng. Mahmood Lutaaya who suggested that for cases of faulty, buried and missing hydrants, new ones should be erected and more hotspots identified and fire hydrants placed.
The KW-GM, guided the meeting, “as a joint team, we need to move away from the blame game and together forge a way forward to handle the growing NRW percentage with the help of fire hydrant vandalism”, stated Eng. Lutaaya.
With this, the director, fire and rescue services suggested that a joint inspection and future monitoring of the fire hydrants be considered, which was unanimously agreed upon and indeed, one was done on Wednesday 11th May 2022.
