Government of Uganda drops 18% VAT on piped water

 

Lira district sets ambitious WASH targets for 2012/13

Lira District Water and Sanitation Coordination Committee has set new targets for next year. They aim to reach 75% coverage and 85% functionality, up from 68% and 78% respectively. Is this attainable in the given time? What conditions are necessary for those targets to be reached? How does Lira compare to that national rates?

Lira was one of the districts affected by the protracted armed conflict between the Lords Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda, can we assume now that they have fully recovered from the effects of the conflict so much so that they can raise their bar so high?

Of course there is nothing wrong with raising the bar - it gives them the motivation to work harder. And no one will blame the DWSCC is those targets are not met. However, there is such a thing as being pragmatic.....just thinking :-)

Read the article and share let us know what you think

http://www.waterservicesthatlast.org/Countries/Uganda-Triple-S-initiative/News-events/Lira-DWSCC-sets-new-targets-for-access-to-and-functionality-of-WASH-services
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Water and sanitation project to solve problems in Nakaseke Town

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/630348-water-and-sanitation-project-to-solve-problems-in-nakaseke-town.html

The one good thing I noted about the launch of this project is the emphasis on sustainability. Additionally, residents made a contribution of UGX50,000 per household then government topped up with a subsidy. Hopefully this contribution will enhance use ownership. But I still wonder what they are going to do with the "broken boreholes" that the residents relied on prior to this piped water project...... is the decommissioning exercise still on? What is the latest about it?

Kabarole marks World Water Day in style

World Water Day celebration in Kabarole District was an upbeat affair, with presentations of poems, songs and dramas by primary school children. The hand pump mechanics had their own minutes of fame when they presented a five-minute drama on M4W. To add to the fanfare, there were exhibitions depicting innovations and technologies.   The Hand Pump Mechanics Association (HPMA) showed off their repair kits; Mountains of the Moon University  showed of a water purification system while HEWASA displayed a rope pump, while the  Development Technology Workshop exhibited rain water harvesting technology. 

Other organisations like IRC/Triple-S, Protos and Tooro botanical gardens went cinematic and presented documentaries on different themes.  

IRC/Triple-S basked in the limelight when the District chairperson  LCV Mr. Richard Rwabuhinga used our documentation of Omuhiigo (The New Vision 22 March 2012, Page 29) as a reference during the launch of the strategy. He hailed IRC/Triple-S intervention in the district and expressed optimism that sustainability of water sources would become a reality in the near future. Mr Rwabihunga had earlier had featured on the radio talk show sponsored by Triple-S, where he mobilized all listeners to pay user fees and support the efforts of the extension staff. Triple-S has over the last two weeks been airing radio programmes in Rwenzori and Lango regions, educating the public about their roles and responsibilities in the management of water sources.

WASH Sector in crisis

With 2.2 million people dying annually owing to WASH-related causes, a humanitarian crisis is looming!
http://bit.ly/wT3jAr

The 6th World Water Forum opened in Marseille with the welcome news that the world had attained the MDG target of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water way ahead of the 2015 deadline. However, another 800 million people in the world are yet to share in that success. http://bit.ly/xcG4Ja 

Children of St Martin School in Marseille stage a performance during the opening of the 6th WWF. Photo by Lydia Mirembe/IRC Triple-S

Water MDG target met well ahead of the 2015 deadline

The world has met the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving
the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, well ahead
of the MDG 2015 deadline. This is the key message in a UNICEF/WHO report
'Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation, 2012
Update'<http://www.unicef.org/wash/files/JMPreport.pdf> issued on 6th of
March.

Soft loans for water users

Lives are changing in Lira district, northern Uganda. The monthly fees collected by water users are now being used for a loan scheme. This practice which started in Kamwenge district, Rwenzori Region, is now fast picking pace in other parts of  Uganda. Here are some interesting testimonies from Lira district
http://www.waterservicesthatlast.org/Countries/Uganda-Triple-S-initiative/News-events/Changing-lives-A-water-users-loan-scheme-in-Lira-Northern-Uganda

Rwenzori Regional Learning event underway

By Lydia Mirembe

The second Rwenzori Regional Learning even is underway at the Tooro resort in Kabarole district. Organised by the Rwenzori WASH Alliance, The learning event has attracted a wide range of actors including: District local government officials from the seven  Rwenzori districts; Non-government organisations, Community based organisations (CBOs), media and academia. The event has also attracted participants from Lango region, who have come to learn from this process as they prepare their own learning event scheduled for March. Key among the presentations so far made is one which provides an overview of learning as an approach towards improved WASH service delivery.  Several questions always remain unanswered: what is learning? How do you know that “learning” has happened? Who leads the learning process? ...... Part of the Rwenzori learning forum will attempt to provide answers to these questions. More later!

Unity in the O & M Cause

Maintenance of water sources is every user's business. However, in many parts of rural Uganda, water users do not want to participate in operation and maintenance activities. On January 17th, a team from Triple-S Uganda visited Omito Borehole in Awire Alem village, Boroboro East, Adekwokok sub-county, where we found the users very busy tending their source. In this community, users have a designated day every month where they come together and clean up the areas surrounding their borehole. This practice ought to be promoted. 

Men repair a fence around the Omito borehole. 

Photo by Lydia Mirembe/Triple-S Uganda

Safe water in Uganda fast becoming an endangered species

Maybe we should be very afraid! Safe water in Uganda is fast becoming and endangered  species

Lives put at risk as algae invades Lake Victoria
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1329070/-/b0pe1hz/-/index.html

Waiting for uncle Sam

Waiting for Uncle Sam to fix Akwoyo spring well

By Lydia Mirembe

The thought of a clean, safe, rural water source brings to mind images of pure water, flowing from a sparkling clean pipe, surrounded by well tended gardens, with users patiently waiting for their turn in straight queues. When I think about safe water sources, I never imagine pools of stagnant water, nor muddy puddles layered with algae and all sorts of litter. But that may be a dreamer’s mind at work!

A visit to Akwoyo spring well, paints a different picture altogether. Serving about 400 households, Akwoyo spring well is considered one of the safer sources in Tebung Anywomorem village, Ngetta sub-county in Lira district. This has been the main source of water in this area since the 1980s. In 2008, Uganda Red Cross Society intervened and turned it into a protected spring. Four years down the road, the well needs a touch up. Huge cracks have developed, the soak pit is filled up, the surroundings are littered with polythene papers, sugarcane husks…..even cow dung.

When I visited the well on the sizzling afternoon of 18^th January 2012, the scene was bustling with activity. No one seemed to be bothered by the state of disrepair. Children were playing; women were doing laundry and others were washing dirty jerry cans; someone had just washed a pile of kitchen utensils. The outlet pipe was almost fully immersed in stagnant water but a young girl was happily filling her jerry can, with her legs covered in water up to the knees.

But things could be better at Akwoyo well, if the users put a little more effort. In 2011, IRC/Triple-S Uganda in conjunction with SNV and Makerere University introduced the Mobile Phone for Water (M4W) initiative, through which community members can report a fault using short message services (SMS). During the baseline study, the Hand Pump Mechanic (HPM) of Ngetta reported the deplorable state of Akwoyo spring well and advised community members to raise money for materials to repair the well. The whole job required about UGX400,000 (US$ 150). That was in November 2011. Three months down the road, not even a shilling has been collected.

And why, one wonders, is it not possible for 400 households to raise four hundred thousand shillings?  Some of them argue that the amount is far beyond what the community can manage and so they need the intervention of the district. But no one among the users has reported to the sub county authorities! Moreover, the users never pay user fees, which means the Water User Committee does not have any start up funds in their coffers.

Mzee Okwe Oteng, 57, has a ready answer to all these unanswered questions. “We are waiting for our Member of Parliament Hon. Sam Engola. I am sure if we told him our need he would come to our aid,” Oteng says assuredly.  The same view is echoed by 23-year old Okello Nyerere.  Oteng and Nyerere are brewers, whose business requires drums-full of clean safe water, but they can’t be bothered about the untended village well.

I leave Akwoyo spring well wondering what is the least that the users can do as they wait for Uncle Sam.  


This article can also be accessed @ http://www.waterservicesthatlast.org/Countries/Uganda-Triple-S-initiative/News-events/Waiting-for-Uncle-Sam-to-fix-Akwoyo-spring-well.

Girl power!

Fetching water is predominantly a girls' activity in Uganda. It's a wonder how this teenage girl manages to push home four jerrycans in one round. Images like these usually depict a male, youth water vendor.  Photo by Lydia Mirembe/Triple-S Uganda

Community ownership of sources

Community ownership of water sources: an ideal we can never attain here in Uganda. Water users think that the government (or some other donor) should provide the source and also maintain it. Basically you take a goat to the river and also force it to drink. How can we make people understand that it is their responsibility to maintain their sources?