UGANDA: New Delhi finances drinking water for 500,000 people in 20 districts
A new project is starting in Uganda. It involves the construction of piped water supply systems in the East African country. The project will benefit at least 500,000 people.
A new project is starting in Uganda to reduce persistent drinking water shortages. It involves the construction of piped systems in the East African country. The work was launched on April 11, 2023 by the Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeje Odongo, and the Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Vincent Ssempijja in Uganda. This was in the presence of Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Exim Bank of India will finance the project to the tune of USD 30 million. This will be through the BC-NEIA, granted by the Indian bank to overseas sovereign governments and their designated public entities (parastatals). The future systems will include facilities for pumping, storage, transport and distribution of drinking water. According to the Ugandan authorities, they will be equipped with solar panels that will take over in case of power cuts.
The project will provide drinking water to an additional half million Ugandans in 20 local districts. Currently 7 million Ugandans still do not have access to safe drinking water, out of an estimated population of nearly 48 million, according to the organization Water.org.
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Like most African countries, Uganda wants to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6), which aims to achieve universal access to safe drinking water by 2030. The government is focusing on the construction of surface water treatment plants. The latest such project started in February 2022 in the East African country. Sogea-Satom, a subsidiary of the French group Vinci, won the contract for the Mbarara plant, which will have a capacity of 30,000 m3 when it is commissioned. The treated water, taken from the Kagera River, will supply nearly 200,000 people in this district located in southwestern Uganda.
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