The Managing Director of National Water and Sewerage Corporation Silver Mugisha, has called for closer collaboration between government agencies, political leaders and local communities to address persistent bottlenecks in water service delivery.
Speaking at NWSC’s bi-annual stakeholder forum in Kampala Mugisha said the utility can no longer manage the challenges alone.
“local leaders please collaborate with us so that we can stop vandalism of water infrastructure.Collaboration of local communities led by their representatives is a good thing,” he stated.
Mugisha also raised concern over rising cases of illegal water connections, noting that the problem is not confined to low-income households.
“We also have issues of illegal connections, people who are not necessarily poor. They want to tap into our systems illegally and take illegal water and this is not good,” he said.
Beyond illegal usage, Mugisha pointed to technical weaknesses in metering systems, which he said are failing to accurately capture low-flow consumption patterns.
“Our meters, just for the record, are not able to measure technically low flows which are as a result of flushing at night,” he said. “All that water they use there is not measured by our meter.”
NWSC has now launched research aimed at quantifying system losses and future policy adjustments.
“We are doing more research on it; we want proper evidence to see how much we are losing as a result of these systemic errors,” Mugisha said.
He said findings are expected by June, after which the utility will propose policy reforms to government.
He also moved to calm concerns over automated billing alerts, saying SMS notifications do not disconnect water supply.
“A message will never disconnect your water,” he said, noting that system delays of up to 24 hours can sometimes trigger messages even after payment has been made.
According to data presented at the forum, customer connections more than doubled from 512,271 in 2017/18 to 1,034,873 by December 2025, with nearly half a million new connections added over the period.
Infrastructure has expanded in parallel. The national water network grew from 12,264 kilometres to 23,995 kilometres, while public standpipes nearly tripled to 32,139, improving access in low-income areas.
Village coverage rose from 18 per cent to 65 per cent, although more than 5,900 villages remain unserved.
Investment in the programme has also been substantial, with the government contributing Shs 284 billion and NWSC investing Shs 301 billion between 2017 and 2025. The number of towns under the scheme has also expanded from 170 to 282, increasing both reach and operational complexity.
Meanwhile National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) has unveiled a Shs 8.2 trillion Strategic Plan (2025/26–2029/30) aiming for universal access to safe water by 2030, targeting an increase in service coverage from 20 to 26 million people. Key plans include 60,000 new connections annually, 500 km of network expansion yearly, and significant infrastructure upgrade.
