The Study Area

The I-UWDS is located in Iganga Municipal Council; the third largest town in the Eastern Uganda and the main administrative and commercial capital of Iganga District. The Municipality lies in the east and northeast of Uganda at 00 36 54N, 33 29 06E. Iganga lies within the Lake Victoria climatic zone and receives a fairly well distributed precipitation over the year which is on average 1,279 mm per year. The town is among the 23 towns managed by National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC). NWSC was established in 1972 as an autonomous public utility with the objective of supplying water and sewerage services to large urban centres in Uganda (NWSC 2010). The total length of I-UWDS is 54 km and covers the municipality and the neighbouring suburbs in the Church Missionary Society Area (CMS) area, Bulanga area and the Musiita area which are located 3, 9 and 12 km respectively from the municipality.

The municipality is a case that represents the pressures faced by an emerging town in a developing country with a conventional UWDS that is under pressures to transition due to the high population growth rates, urbanisation and mature infrastructure. Characterised by high urbanisation and population growth rates, the municipality has grown from a mere town to a municipality.

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The water coverage in the area is estimated at 40%, with about only 40,000 people having access to piped water supply. With the projected population size of 170,000 by 2032, coupled with an aggravated high influx of the day time population, means that the existing I-UWDS will not be able to meet the demand. In addition it is expected change pressures such as the deteriorating infrastructure and urbanisation will escalate the demand for water supply and sanitation. The sewerage network is inadequate as it covers only 7% of the central business district. The area has 4 km of sewage network which collects and delivers sewage to two sewerage treatment plant (STP) located at Igamba in the western part and Nakavule STP in the eastern part of the municipality. Because the institutions operate in silos with NWSC being in charge of the water and sewerage system and the Iganga Municipal Council being in charge of the urban drainage and solid waste, there exist institutional barriers to the uptake of UWDS transitions.

The transition of I-UWDS commenced in the 1960s, when the first water supply system for the two was constructed to provide water to a growing town on a trade route that links Uganda as a land locked country to the port of Mombasa through Nairobi, Kenya. The transition has been underpinned by the formation of the UWDS transition structures at the social, institutional and technological level, and global change pressures. The transition of I-UWDS social, institutional and technological structures originates from the National Water Policy developed by the Government of Uganda in 1999. This led to Government of Uganda (GoU) to form studies and reform structures such as Rural Water Supply and Sanitation and the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation to guide the transition of UWDS. One such study is the Rural Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Study (RTWSS) undertaken by The African Development bank and The GOU aimed to aid the process of transitioning UWDS for towns such as Iganga (Habitant Consultatnts

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1994) RTWSS aided the development of the institutional structure by transferring the management of the water system from the water board to NWSC. This opened the I-UWDS management to the NWSC institutional and technical structures in tandem with these changed managerial requirements (NWSC Act of 2000).

The other factor that influenced the development of new structures was the rapid urbanization and population growth that had outstripped UWDS of their capacity to meet the levels of service of UWDS. Global change pressures in the last two decades have resulted in significant changes in the UWDS for Iganga. As noted in Chapter 2, population dynamics influence transitions of UWDS. The population of the Iganga as supplied by I-UWDS grew by 94,000 people from 6,000 to 100,000 between 1969 -2012 (Habitant Consultatnts 1994; UBOS 2002; BKS Global and Kagga and Partners 2012). The growth rate between 1969-1991 was 4.5%, increasing to 6.5%

between 1980-1990 (Habitant Consultatnts 1994). Population increase in Iganga Municipal Council is responsible for the increased water demand. Hence, there is pressure to transition in order for Iganga I-UWDS to meet the increased demand. To meet the increase in population and urbanisation, the original I-UWDS has transitioned into the existing UWDS transitioned into the existing UWDS (See Figure 6-2).

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Figure 6-2: Transition of Iganga-I-UWDS [1990-Todate]

The existing I-UWDS is also characterised by high economic, social and environmental inertia that inhibits the transition of the existing system to its desired future state. A discussion with the area Manager NWSC indicates that the utility plans to transition the existing UWDS due to the

“small size water mains” such as the upgrade of the 400m distribution mains along Bukyabubi road from DN40mm to DN80mm and many more. (NWSC 2012). However legacy infrastructure that causes high UWDS transition costs and impacts limiting future transitions. Moreover, these

I-UWDS Present I-UWDS 1990

Urbanisation-Iganga

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investments have been outpaced by the rapid population growth and urbanisation, resulting in water shortages and low pressures in most parts of distribution system. At present there are utility plans to increase the capacity of Bulanga and CMS reservoirs to 250m³ each.

Though the case study is I-UWDS, only the Town Central Distribution Zone (TCDZ) a specific study area within Iganga was selected for application of the model. TCDZ was considered because it was possible to hydraulically isolate it from the entire network without affecting the hydraulic characteristics of I-UWDS. Secondly, TCDZ was selected because it constitutes part of the original network from which the present day network has transitioned. In fact TCDZ is one of the three original discrete water supply systems designed in 1960 to supply the town centre, the hospital and police. The TCDZ has grown from a pipe network of 5.73km length to the present 54km. The TCDZ is supplied by gravity from a storage tank located in the town centre.

TCDZ has the following characteristics:

(a) A water storage tank that supplies the area by gravity.

(b) 54km pipe work with sizes that range between 40-450mm diameters.

(c) Supply zone elevation of between 1138-1186m.

(d) UWDS average pressure of 15.00m.

Few efforts have been made to transition the system in tandem with rapid urbanisation and population growth. However, the transitions have been driven reactive trial and error approach leading to a complex bandaged spaghetti network that is locked in an unsustainable form. The existing UWDS transitions have not kept pace with population growth resulting in water shortages and low pressures in most parts of distribution system. According to the Habitant

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Consultants (1994), TCDZ is one of the areas that continue to be complained of intermittent water supply and dry zones. The need to determine the optimal approach for transitioning the I-UWD is due to the need to transition the existing I-UWDS without constraining future transitions.

Under such circumstances, the assessment of the transitionability of the existing system is required to ensure that the desired future system is reached in an optimal way (with maximum benefit and minimum cost both now and in the future).