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

Content
Introduction
National water and sewerage corporation-NWSC
Challenges
The next steps
Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013
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Introduction
The water sector formation in
Uganda-
Min. of H
₂o and Environment – political leadership
•Provides water and sewerage services on a commercial basis in gazetted urban areas. So far 23 districts.
•Handles all water service provision in the rest of the country.
•Not commercial .
•Work with local councils- to pipe water, boreholes etc
•Focuses on the water resource- availability and adequacy.
Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013
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.....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
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NWSC
Is equipped with an automated system for efficient operational activities
Does not focus on water for agriculture (purely urban),
Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013
35% of its costs is electricity billsespecially for the bigger plants,
The bigger water treatment plants are automated,
Serves 3.4m people with H
₂O coverage of 70%(June
2012)
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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;
H
₂O consumption/distributio n, leakage and network failures, defective meter distribution
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…..cont’d
An AutoCAD system for primary creation of device points-basic initial drawings,
Pro-poor interventionprepaid metering in the urban-poor areas
Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013
Work in progress – developing system for district/zone metering, adding network sensors, improving hydraulic modelling, revenue management, network expansion etc.
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Challenges
Poor performance of the data networks,
Constrained raw water resourcesintermittent 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
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….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
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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
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…..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
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Luxor, Egypt, 14-15 April 2013
Thank you
?
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