The water crisis in Masaka has entered the fifth day today, affecting hundreds of residents and businesses. The most affected areas are Soweto, Line, Bwala, Masaka central business district, Kizungu, Kijabweemi and Kimanya. Masaka town plunged into a water crisis after Umeme disconnected power leaving the entire town in darkness.
The power crisis forced National Water and Sewerage Corporation-NWSC to resort to a generator to pump water into the town, but it also broke down. Jackson Nimussima, Branch Manager, National Water and Sewerage Corporation explain that the generator that they procured last year at shillings 350 million suddenly stopped running.
He explains that efforts by their technical team to repair it have been futile. Nimussima says that he has now communicated to Car and General Enterprises which supplied it to come to their rescue. He says their hands are now tied as they cannot do anything to address the water crisis until the generator is fixed.
// Cue in: “It it breaks down and there is no power……..”
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Majority of residents in Masaka town are now buying water from vendors who are fetching it from Nabajuzi swamp and Nakayiba swamp. By Thursday morning, a 20litre jerrican of water had reached 1000shillings. The scarcity of water has forced operators of various public water borne toilets to close business because they cannot afford the water bill.
Some of the affected public toilets are Kayondo plaza public toilet, Twin Tower public toilet, Mutto public toilet, and Buddu public toilet. Hamza Mahane, manager of Kayondo Plaza public toilet says that he has decided to close the toilets and suspend operations until water supply is restored. He says that they can no longer have water for flushing the toilets and washing hands. Muhame explains that he had resorted to buying water from vendors but then he can no longer manage it because it doesn’t make business sense.
He claims that on Wednesday he bought sixteen 20 liter jerricans of water at 1000shillings each but he made losses. Mary Tumuhimbise, a resident of Masaka town has asked National Water and Sewerage Corporation to expedite the restoration of water supply saying their lives are at risk because of using contaminated water. Kirunda Magoola, Masaka Umeme Branch Manager has declined to comment on when the power problem will be fixed.
