By Chris Mugasha
Unlike in urban areas where water flowing from a tap is normal, in some areas, a site with water flowing from a tap becomes like ‘tourist attraction’!
This is what happened recently in Omukayuya trading centre in Karungu Sub County in Buhweju district when National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) opened a water tap in the trading centre.
“Many of us ‘trekked’ to Omukayuya trading centre to see a water tank fitted up in the air and how water flows from a tap,” said Jovanisi Kyozeire a resident.
Kyozeire is among the many residents of Karungu who are happy with NWSC for extending water to some of the areas in Karungu despite the terrain of the area.
“To us, it’s a dream come true because we had never thought of getting water through a tap!” Kyozeire says.
Kyozeire’s happiness follows NWSC’s efforts in completing Kamukaki water project. The project intends to supply water to over 3500 people in Karungu Sub County including Tumu Hospital.
The Buhweju district chairman Deo Atuheire said, “This water project is a very big boost and a relief to us as leaders and to the people of Buhweju especially Karungu sub county.”
“Some places like Omukayuya had remained ‘inhabitable’ yet those places are fertile and flat for human settlement but due to lack of any source of water, people shunned to go there and develop it,” Atuheire said.
Some women and children we talked to said they have been walking over 10kilometres to fetch water from the streams in the lowlands.
“This had seriously affected education in this area because children have been spending more time hunting for water,” said Innocent Mbikireize a resident. He added, “the issue of water crisis had fueled cases of domestic violence.”
Atuheire commended NWSC leadership led by the Managing Director Dr. Eng. Silver Mugisha for bailing out the people of Buhweju, Karungu in particular. The district chairman added that, “its double happiness because in some areas, it would have taken years to extend there electricity but because NWSC wanted electricity to be able to pump water, it (NWSC) also supported the extension of electricity especially to its pumping site.”
The NWSC Buhweju area Manager Edwin Nasasira said Kamukaki project joins other projects like Katinda mini water supply and Ibariro booster station which NWSC developed and other water projects which were taken over by NWSC for efficient service delivery from the former gravity flow schemes.
Out of Buhweju’s 14 hilly sub counties, NWSC currently serves the seven sub counties of Bitsya, Buhunga, Karungu, Rwengwe, Kashenyi-Kajani and the town councils of Nyakishana and Nsiika.
The NWSC Principal Public relations in-charge of Western Region Paul Kahigi said a number of challenges like; the nature of terrain of Buhweju, constant power surges, flooding and degradation of the environment among others hinder the agency’s operations in Buhweju. End.
