By Dorcus Kimono
The National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) has unveiled its Strategic Plan for 2025 to 2030, setting ambitious targets to expand access to safe water, improve service delivery and strengthen operational efficiency across the country.
The plan, anchored on the theme “Water for All for Health and Prosperity,” aligns with Uganda’s Vision 2040 and the Fourth National Development Plan, and comes on the back of steady growth recorded over the past five years.
Between 2020 and 2025, NWSC expanded its service coverage from 258 to 287 towns, while its customer base grew from 724,000 to over one million. The population served rose from 15 million to 20 million people, with annual turnover increasing from UGX 385 billion to UGX 649 billion. Customer satisfaction has remained stable at about 80 percent.
Building on this growth, the corporation now targets to increase the population served to 26 million people by 2030. The plan also includes expansion of pipeline networks by at least 500 kilometres and delivery of about 60,000 new connections annually.
NWSC is also seeking to reduce non-revenue water from about 34 percent to 28 percent, while growing annual turnover to UGX 768 billion.
To deliver on these targets, the corporation estimates an investment requirement of UGX 8.2 trillion. About 60 percent of this is expected to come from internal resources, 27 percent from development partners, 6 percent from government, and 4 percent through market-based financing.
Management says the strategy will focus on infrastructure expansion, environmental protection, digital transformation, improved customer experience and financial sustainability.
Even with the gains made so far, NWSC acknowledges mounting pressure from rapid urbanisation, population growth, climate change and ageing infrastructure.
Non-revenue water remains one of the key operational challenges. Technical assessments show that losses in parts of the system range between 10 and 15 percent, driven by illegal connections, leakages, metering inaccuracies and network inefficiencies.
The corporation also flagged challenges in water measurement, especially in systems affected by pressure variations, overhead storage and complex distribution layouts, which can affect billing accuracy.
To address these gaps, NWSC is rolling out targeted reforms, including infrastructure rehabilitation, improved monitoring systems, and pilot studies to enhance metering accuracy and better understand system performance.
Illegal connections and vandalism of infrastructure were also cited as persistent threats to service reliability. The corporation says it is strengthening enforcement and working more closely with security agencies and communities to protect water assets.
Several water supply stabilisation projects are already delivering results, improving reliability and extending services to previously underserved areas.
NWSC says it will also scale up digital management tools to support real-time decision-making and improve operational control across its network.
Management is now calling for stronger partnerships, innovation and sustained financing to deliver on the plan, stressing that expanding access to clean and safe water will require collective effort from government, development partners and the public.
The corporation maintains that the new strategy positions it to close existing service gaps while sustaining growth in access, efficiency and financial performance.
