Shs1.5b water project lies idle for 8 years

Residents and local leaders in Bugaya Sub-county in the island district of Buvuma are concerned about a Shs1.5 billion water project which has been lying idle for eight years.

They said pipes were laid and taps distributed to different households and institutions but in vain.

The project which was established in 2015, was to benefit more than 5,000 households in the four parishes of Bbuye, Zinga,Ndwasi and Ndwasi  B including the two government -aided primary schools – Buyuba and Bugaya.

The plant was designed to use solar energy to pump water from Lake Victoria into reservoirs at Bbuye Village. The project was funded by the government on a quarterly basis for a period of five financial years.

According to Mr John Sserwanja, the Bugaya Sub-county chairperson, residents only received some water at their taps when district officials visited the site ahead of the official launch in 2019.

“After realising that the work done was substandard, I personally blocked the official launch of the project because it’s insane to launch something which doesn’t work,” he told Daily Monitor on Wednesday.

Mr Sserwanja said he has since sent numerous reports about the idle project to the district leadership, but nothing has been done.

“When State minister for Water Aisha Ssekindi visited our area in March this year, I explained to her that the pump provided for the project is too weak to pump water from the lake to the reservoirs. She promised that her ministry will provide a new big pump within a period of one month and we are still waiting for their intervention,” he said. 

Ms Jeniffer Nakityo, a resident of Buwaga Village, said some residents recently staged a peaceful demonstration protesting the delayed fixing of the water project.

She said pupils in the area start their lessons three hours late due to the long distance they trek to fetch water from the lake.

“We had hope that this project will save our children from fetching water directly from the lake, which is risky, but it is unfortunate that it has remained a white elephant,” she said.

Mr. David Byansi, a resident of Mubale Village, said local leaders should pressurise the government and contractor to fix the issues at the project.

“The project started in 2015 but we have never benefited. Yet we have challenges in accessing clean water in our village “.

He said they are still fetching water from the lake.

“Now we still have a challenge that we move two to four Millimetres just to fetch water from the lake it has remained a bottleneck to our education”.

Buvuma District Chairperson, Mr Adrian Wasswa Ddungu , said the contractor used the wrong pump. 

“We raised this concern with the line minister when she came to the district and she promised that the government will procure a new pump for us. I think the delay is due to the government’s lengthy procurement processes,” he said.

State minister Ssekindi told Monitor that she was aware of the problem and that it would be fixed soon.

“The problem has been money, but since the new national budget has been passed, we are going to get some funds to procure a new pump for them,” she said.  

Buvuma has a total water coverage of 38 percent up from 29 percent in 2014.

Currently, the district, which comprises 52 inhabited islands, has a projected population of 130,000. 

So far, piped water has been extended to 50 villages of the 220 villages in the island district.

However, residents complain that they rarely receive water due to low pressure.

A recent survey by district authorities revealed that 56,960 residents lack access to safe water, while about 55,180 do not have pit-latrines at home. This situation has exposed many locals to hygiene-related diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and dysentery.