In Uganda, the state-owned National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NSWC) is taking over the Rukungiri water supply and sanitation project. By this decision, NSWC effectively removes Technofab Engineering from the project. The Indian company was awarded the project in 2016. But five years later, barely 35% of the work has been completed.
The water supply and sanitation project in Rukungiri, in the western region of Uganda, will eventually be completed by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NSWC). The information was recently made public by the Managing Director of the Ugandan public utility, Silver Mugisha, who expressed his indignation at the slow progress of the original contractor.
Indeed, the Rukungiri project, which aims to improve access to water and sanitation services, has been awarded to the Indian company Technofab Engineering in 2016 for a period of two years. However, five years after the start of the works, the rate of progress has barely reached 35%. The most to be complained about are the populations of the Rukungiri district, who receive only 600 cubic metres of water per day for a daily demand of 3,000 cubic metres.
Supplying 120 000 people
In the future, NSWC will build drinking water treatment plants. The public company will also lay pipes to transport drinking water to storage tanks. All these facilities will provide 9,600 m3 of water per day to more than 120,000 people in Rukungiri district, particularly in the sub-counties of Kebisoni, Buyanja and the municipalities of Rukungiri, Bugangari and Nyakagyeme; as well as in some towns in Ntungamo district. As part of the sanitation component of the project, the National Water and Sewerage Corporation plans to construct public latrines.
The Rukungiri Water Supply and Sanitation Project is jointly financed by the World Bank and the Government of Uganda to the tune of 44 billion Kenyan shillings, or more than $401.2 million.
Inès Magoum
