Water Resource Management “Uganda’s Experience” ITU Workshop on “ICT as an Enabler for Smart Water Management” (Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013) Water Resource Management “Uganda’s Experience” Nakiguli Helen Cynthia, Environment Management Specialist, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), hnakiguli@ucc.co.ug Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

National water and sewerage corporation-NWSC Challenges The next steps Content Introduction National water and sewerage corporation-NWSC Challenges The next steps Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

NWSC DWD D-WRM Introduction The water sector formation in Uganda- Min. of H₂o and Environment – political leadership Provides water and sewerage services on a commercial basis in gazetted urban areas. So far 23 districts. NWSC Handles all water service provision in the rest of the country. Not commercial . Work with local councils- to pipe water, boreholes etc DWD Focuses on the water resource- availability and adequacy. D-WRM Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

.....introduction Main water sources; L. Victoria, R. Nile and (R. Rwizi, R. Kwania, gravity flow from the Rwenzori mountains etc- for the urban provision) Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

NWSC Is equipped with an automated system for efficient operational activities Does not focus on water for agriculture (purely urban), 35% of its costs is electricity bills- especially for the bigger plants, The bigger water treatment plants are automated, Serves 3.4m people with H₂O coverage of 70%(June 2012) Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

NWSC- Automated System The NWSC uses; A central ArcGIS server for; Management of the Geodatabase- (service points, piped network, roads, telecom cables, sewer lines, power lines, etc) Integrated to the billing system and call centre, Other operations; H₂O consumption/distribution, leakage and network failures, defective meter distribution Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

…..cont’d An AutoCAD system for primary creation of device points-basic initial drawings, Pro-poor intervention- prepaid metering in the urban-poor areas Work in progress – developing system for district/zone metering, adding network sensors, improving hydraulic modelling, revenue management, network expansion etc. Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

Challenges Poor performance of the data networks, Constrained raw water resources-intermittent water supply, Non revenue water-illegal connections, old pipe work (system overwhelmed), Poor inter-agency coordination and information sharing (e.g. city authorities, different utilities – power/water, ) Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

….challenges Poor/inadequate systems support from vendors – most applications / equipment are imported, with limited local maintenance operations. Skills sets and competencies are still very limited. Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

The next steps.....towards smart water management Focus on increasing the use of ICT in water management, specifically GIS, Hydraulic modeling, asset management, network monitoring etc- governments should invest in efficiency, Policies, standards and guidelines in place More Capacity / skills development Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

…..next steps Increased focus on Water for Production, at Ministry level. Focus of water for livestock, irrigation etc- automated system Enhancing regional and international collaborations towards smart water management, Promote R&D on smart technologies in water management Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013

Thank you ? Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013