Written by Mark Kimbugwe and Faith Anne Mpande
Demand for water in Kampala Water (Kampala, Wakiso and Mukuno) is a moving target. Kampala Water used to have a deficit of 60 million litres of water per day. With the new Katosi Water Plant, the amount of water available for distribution has increased. Mark Kimbugwe and Faith Anne Mpande caught up with the Senior Manager Water Supply, Moses Bigabwa and asked him about the water supply status and what is being done to improve water supply.
What is the water supply situation in Kampala?
I can confidently say that the water situation is stable. Our desire is to move from good to very good. We still encounter a few challenges here and there. In the Central Business District, we are pretty much on top of things, in the Eastern part of Kampala is also very good. Some customers are still facing intermittent supply because of a limited network in that section of Kampala Metropolitan. The hiccups are mainly faced in the areas of Kyengera, Mityana road, Entebbe Road, Wakiso, Nansana and Bulenga.
What parts of Kampala have largely benefitted from the Katosi Water Supply Project?
The Katosi water project came on board in May 2021, with a capacity of 160 million liters of water per day. At the moment we should be churning out close to 70 million liters per day. Before Katosi came on board, the areas of Seeta, Mukono, Ntinda, Kyaliwajjala and Gayaza were being supplied from the high-level system in Muyenga. Before Katosi, we noticed that we had a very huge deficit of 60 million liters. We had to ration supply to ensure we built water levels for the system to stabilize. We had to switch off supply to the Mukono, Seeta areas, and sometimes Mutungo. We even had a schedule for that.
When Katosi became operational, I did not have to wake up thinking of whom I had to turn off. Switching off supply for purposes of rationing can be very frustrating at times. Customers get very upset. We as the water operators also find it a challenge because you don’t achieve your intended goals of “water for all”. The challenge is water supply through the pipes is prone to airlocks due to constant shutdowns.
Fortunately, we do not have a current global rationing schedule. We discarded it because we started pumping the amount of water we needed. The Mukono area was entirely connected to the Katosi system, enabling constant water supply to the people of Mukono. If there are any water shortages reported, then those are isolated cases that can easily be resolved by the Branch team.
The other area that is benefitting from the Katosi project is Seeta.
On the supply situation in Seeta, does NWSC have a plan for the area of the Namilyango – Katale estate? Because the customers in that area are under the illusion that National water forgot about them?
Unfortunately, that area has not yet been linked to the Katosi system. However, we have a plan for them and we are in the final stages of handling the logistical challenges that involve our water main lines crossing through church land. This issue is being worked on with the utmost urgency.
The next major beneficiary from Katosi is the Sonde reservoir which has a capacity of 15 million liters, supplying the areas of Namugongo, Kyaliwajjala and Bulindo. All these areas previously received water from Muyenga.
We also laid some major lines along the way and joined them to the system. The line benefits Kanisa ya Kristo, Kira, Sonde, Nabusugwe, Kiwologoma and Gayaza. Gayaza previously had major issues of no water.
There is a booster station in Namugongo that takes water to Naguru, currently Naguru supply is partly from Ggaba and Katosi. Previously water to this tank was also rationed. We turn off Kulambiro to supply of Ntinda and Kiwatule for 2 to 3 days and then reverse the system to supply Kisaasi, Kyanja, and Kulambiro. Now that water to Naguru is stable, the areas of Ntinda, Kiwatule, Naalya, Najjera, Naguru are no longer being rationed. The areas of Kisaasi, Kyanja, Kulambiro, Komamboga, Kungu now receive water on a 24-hour basis.
We laid another line and constructed another tank in Naguru which is referred to as Naguru B. This line runs through Kisaasi, Kyanja, Kumbuzi-Luteete, Masooli-Kiteezi, Kiteezi through Kabaga, Namalere up to Kawanda. All this was done swiftly to partly solve water problems of Kyanja, Komamboga, Luteete, Masooli, Kiteezi, while also benefiting parts of Namere, Ttula.
This means that we now rarely get complaints of no water in Namere, Kiteezi, Ttula and if they are existent, they are a one-off that can be solved with ease. Areas of Kabaga going as far as Kiti, Mawule are receiving water from Katosi. Kawanda going up to Matugga currently receives less water from Muyenga.
There are more projects being undertaken to saturate areas still experiencing pockets of no-water and dry zones. When I say western zone very good, central zone no bother apart from instances of system brake down, Mbuya area has undergone a booster upgrade plus the pumping main, what remains for us is to put up a tank at Mbuya reservoir. Kololo Hill has a new pumping main, we utilized the booster at centenary park. The only challenge we face in Kololo is switching it off when the tank is full.
Now that the Katosi water project is operational, why do we still have water-stressed areas in Kampala, and what interventions are being put in place to further improve the situation?
As shared earlier, the western part of Kampala, we look at the Masaka road corridor that is Kyengera, Buddo, Nabbingo, to Namagoma, to Nsangi, where we still have quite some challenges.
Katosi water has its limitations. It is one thing to have the water and another to have the infrastructure available to distribute that water. The challenge we have now is not the amount of water, but the capacity to move that water to where it is required. There is additional investment required to move and distribute that water.
For the Kyengera area, we are currently implementing a project that will extend a transmission main from Nalukolongo, next to the World Food Program stores. We initially had a main pipe evacuating water from the Namasuba reservoir to Rubaga, which improved the water levels in Muyenga. This transmission main was activated to take water from Namasuba and relieve the Muyenga reservoir Tanks. Since Muyenga is now stable, we have a redundant main pipe that we intend to use to take water to Rubaga. When the water line is not in use, we use it to take water to Kyengera.
We have started laying this pipe through old Masaka road to Kyengera however, the challenge we have on Masaka road is that the water and urban development are mismatched. Work has already started and we believe in 3 to 4 months we should be able to deliver water to Kyengera. Thereafter we will move it from Kyengera, Nabbingo and thrust it to Namagoma, and Nsangi. It should be noted that the location for the booster station is still being deliberated.
We then embarked on Mityana road where we have completed a project to deliver more water to the Bulenga booster with the intention of having dedicated pumps raising water to the Buloba tank and we expect a new pump in early April 2022 to sustain the levels of this tank. Once this has been realized, the issues along Buloba, Bulenga and Wakiso will be no more. These areas were previously under rationing.
Earlier interventions of laying a water main from Rubaga tank were to deliver more water to boost the main line. The excess water at the booster is evacuated to the Buloba tank. This is in tandem with the Kabulengwa system where we pump on a rational basis to the Kabulengwa tank and on other days we pump to the Bulaga tank. Once we relieve the Buloba tank, we will fill the Kabulengwa tank full on a 24-hour basis to partly support Wakiso and Nansana.
Currently, Muyenga tank levels are very decent however, other challenges of evacuating this water to solve the issues of the population in Kawempe, Bwaise and some parts of Nakulabye are faced. This is because the above-mentioned areas are served by the same transmission main whose capacity has been exceeded. Plans are in progress to lay another transmission line from Jinja road all the way to Mulago and this line will relieve the water stress in areas of Nankulabye through Kasubi up to Nansana.
We have hit a few snugs along the way that are being corrected, for example the distribution line from Kasubi through Namungoona to the booster in Nansana has not had sufficient supply of water because the pumps are functional for less than 24 hours hence leading to a spike in no water issues in areas of greater Nansana such as Kibwa, Yesu Amala and the surrounding areas.
The Kasubi project through Namungoona has been completed and is under testing phase. It will be supported by the centenary park, Jinja road line up to the Mulago intervention project. The procurement of pipes is about to be completed and sourcing for the contractor to undertake the works is done. The team is working around the clock to ensure that it meets the estimated project completion time of three months while limiting damage to property and infrastructure along the route.
On the rampant vandalism of water infrastructure and meter theft? What is NWSC doing to curb this vice?
This has been one of our biggest challenges however, we have come up with a number of measures to curb down this vice and key amongst them is community sensitization where we have emphasized the importance of these assets to the well-being of the people in these given areas. This community sensitization is done through our vast branch network in Kampala and its peri urban areas.
There are also measures we are taking like security markings for all our installations and fixtures, one being in the market and your purchase an item with our inscription, it is an indication you have been sold a stolen item and you may not have where to sell it and better still may land you into deep waters but we are working on a technological solution to help better manage our infrastructure.
Who is Moses Bigabwa?
I have worked with National Water & Sewerage Corporation for 20 years now and I hold a Masters degree in water management, with a specialization in Water Resources Management from UNESCO in the Netherlands.
I have worked in the Projects and Sewerage Services department as a sewerage engineer, in Kampala Water as a Branch Manager in Kansanga, Bwaise and the City Centre Branch. I later moved to the water supply department as the Network Manager where I continue to serve as Senior Manager in charge of Water Supply.
That is me in nutshell. 20 years of serving at NWSC in different capacities. At Sewerage services is where I began my career at NWSC and this ushered me into operations. I also made a cameo at the Ggaba water works for a year.
National Water and Sewerage Corporation remains dedicated to water for All for a delighted customer by a delighted workforce.
