Kampala — Uganda’s national water utility has warned that illegal connections, infrastructure vandalism and metering inefficiencies are undermining progress toward universal water access. Silver Mugisha, managing director of the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), called for closer coordination between government agencies, political leaders and local communities to address these persistent challenges.
Speaking at NWSC’s bi-annual stakeholder forum in Kampala on April 17, Mugisha said the utility can no longer manage the issues alone. “This pain was expressed to them (stakeholders), and we requested that they collaborate with us so that we can stop that vice,” he said, referring to vandalism of water infrastructure. While NWSC already works with security agencies, he stressed that local leadership structures remain critical to protecting assets. “The collaboration of local communities led by their representatives is a good thing,” he added.
Mugisha also raised concern over rising cases of illegal water connections, noting that the problem extends beyond 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. Such practices distort revenue collection and undermine equity in service delivery, particularly for compliant customers who bear the cost of system inefficiencies.
Beyond illegal usage, Mugisha pointed to technical weaknesses in metering systems, which he said fail 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.” He added that even in multi-unit buildings, measurement inconsistencies persist. “Even when you separate connections on a huge block, all those numerous meters you put there, you don’t record water that is going through accurately,” he said, describing the issue as a major source of non-revenue water.
NWSC has now launched research aimed at quantifying system losses and informing 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. Findings are expected by June, after which the utility will propose policy reforms to government. “There will be a policy proposal which we shall make for our minister to see how that programme can be addressed without cheating anyone, without cheating customers, but also without the organisation losing anything,” he said.
Mugisha emphasised that consumers should not be blamed for system shortcomings. “There’s nothing wrong with what people are doing; it is not their problem. The people are free to flush their toilets… it is now our problem to see how we can measure the flow into those homesteads accurately,” he added. 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.
The comments come against the backdrop of significant progress under NWSC’s 100% Water Service Coverage Acceleration Project (SCAP 100), launched in 2017 to expand piped water access nationwide. 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.
