More than 36,000 residents of Wakiso town council are without water because of the high costs of operating the generator power the water pump. The water that supplies Wakiso town council is pumped from two boreholes that are found in Kasengejje and Kisimbire villages. The generator was provided to the town council in 2008 by the Ministry of Water and Environment through the Directorate of Water Development.
However, Godfrey Bwebukya Kisseka, the principal town clerk Wakiso Town council says that they have found unprofitable to buy fuel to operate the generator that powers the water pumps. He says that council spends shillings 140.000 to pump water from which they get shillings 160,000.
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Kisseka explains that the other alternative would be to power the water pumps using Hydro- electricity but the rampant theft of transformer fuel has made it complicated. Kiseka says that the water problem in the town council is likely to persist for sometime until a cheaper power alternative is found.
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Peter Odoi, assistant manager Jobatov Joint Ventures, which was contracted to supply water to the town council says there is little they can do to address the water problem. He says that even the fuel was available only about 628 out the 36,000 consumers can access water within intervals of 20 minutes.
Odoi attributes the problem on the small pipe network and limited capacity of the water reservoir. He says that at full capacity both water pumps can only pump 110,000 liter of water which can only serve 37 percent of the consumers.
Stephen Ssalongo Walakira a resident of Kisimbiri village says a jerrican of water in the area now goes for 500 shillings.
The Wakiso water distribution system is part of the World Bank funded project under Global Partnership on Out Put-Based Aid (GPOBA), which focuses on the extension of safe water to urban poor communities.
