Regional Update
Information crucial in water use, says DWRM Director By Ronald Musoke
U
s e o f t h e wa t e r re s o u rc e s can improve with increased dissemination of information, according to the director of the Directorate of Water Resources Management (DWRM), Engineer Shillingi Mugisha. At a consultative workshop with media practitioners in April in Kampala, the media was asked to help pass no relevant information to the public. The Directorate of Water Resources Management is responsible for managing Uganda’s water resources in an integrated and sustainable manner in order to secure and provide water of adequate quantity and quality for all social and economic needs for the present and future generation. The DWRM regulates water usage in the country and is also responsible for monitoring, assessment and information services; planning and regulation as well as provision of technical advice. “The development of a comprehensive communication strategy to address these need us to come together and discuss issues related to water resources development and management in the country,” said the director. “As you are all aware, water is life and provision of safe and adequate drinking water is a fundamental human right as enshrined in the constitution of Uganda.” Engineer Mugisha added that in order to ensure that services are provided with increased efficiency and effectiveness, the water and sanitation sector has been undergoing reforms. Sub sector studies have been completed in four areas of urban water and sanitation; rural water and sanitation, water for production and water resources management. He said inadequate and poor management of water resources has a cause and effect on poverty, adding that these two factors deny
A section of the River Nile, one of Uganda’s most important water resources
Ugandans, especially the poor; an adequate supply of clean water thus increasing disease burden, time and energy spent collecting water and general effort on the well being. Current safe water coverage for Uganda’s rural and urban areas is said to be 63 and 68 per cent respectively according to Ms Florence Adongo, the Commissioner in the Department of Quality Water Resources Management (DQWRM) at the Directorate in Entebbe. And although Uganda is said to have enough fresh water resources with recent United Nations estimates indicating 66 cubic kilometres of renewable water resources per year - which correspond to around 2,800 cubic metres per person each year, the current scenario is set to change in a few years because of several factors. “The water resources are under threat from over exploitation and pollution. You therefore need to ensure that they are sustainably developed and protected from pollution so that they can be available for the present and
future generations,” Mugisha said. Research shows that the country’s fresh water is increasingly being exploited because of population growth, urbanization, agriculture and industrialisation and with the advent of climatic change; water resources will soon be over stretched. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and UN Water, water use around the world has been growing at more than the rate twice of population increase in the last century. Water withdrawals are predicted to increase by 50 per cent by 2025 in developing countries according to the Global Environment Outlook. Further estimates by the UN indicate that by 2025, about 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions. This calls for proper management of these resources because fresh water resources are classified as finite resources■ EnviroConserveAFRICA May/July 2009
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