New piped water supply systems project in Uganda launched

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To address ongoing drinking water shortages, a new piped water supply systems project in Uganda was launched. The project was launched on April 11, 2023, by the ministers of defense and veterans affairs, Vincent Ssempijja and Jeje Odongo of Uganda.

Read also: Contract awarded for implementation of drinking water project in Mbarara, Uganda

The Foreign Minister of India, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, was in attendance when the project was launched.

The new piped water supply systems project in Uganda

Project financing in the sum of $30 million will be provided by the Exim Bank of India. This would be done through the BC-NEIA, which is a grant provided by the Indian Bank to foreign sovereign governments as well as their designated parastatals.

Facilities for pumping, storing, transporting, and distributing drinking water will be included in future systems. They will also be outfitted with solar panels, according to Ugandan authorities. Solar energy will take over in the event of a power outage.

An additional five hundred thousand Ugandans in 20 local districts will have access to drinking water. This is thanks to this initiative. 7 million people in Uganda still lack access to safe drinking water out of an approximate population that is close to 48 million. This is according to the organization Water.org.

Uganda shares the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6). It is said that it guarantees everyone has access to safe water by the year 2030. The same also applies to the majority of African nations.

The establishment of surface water treatment plants is the government’s primary objective. The most recent of these projects began in the nation of East Africa in February 2022.

The Mbarara plant will have a capacity of 30,000 m3 when completed. Its contract was awarded to Sogea-Satom, a division of the French group Vinci. In this district, which is located in southwest Uganda, the treated water from the Kagera River will be serving close to 200,000 people.