George Williams, 7th Feb 2024
National Water and Sewerage Corporation has informed Parliament’s Health Committee that as at 31st January 2024, the national and regional referral hospitals owe Shs14.993Bn in unpaid water bills and some of the bills have remained unpaid for over 2 years. The revelation was made as the officials of the Ministry of Health & National Water and Sewerage Corporation appeared before the Health Committee of Parliament.
To reduce this huge cost on water bills, Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health proposed the construction of boreholes in hospitals within urban areas, so as to reduce unpaid water bill, after these arrears rose to Shs14.993Bn as per January 2024..
Atwine’s remarks followed a revelation by Johnson Amayo, Deputy Managing Director (Technical Services) at National Water and Sewerage Co-operation, who revealed that as at 31st January 2024, Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government have unpaid water bills to a tune of Shs81.4Bn, with national & regional referral hospitals alone owing Shs14.993bn.
Diana however added that although there is this proposal, the Ministry may not achieve it because they were advised against such a decision.
“In urban areas we were guided that we can’t have boreholes and so you need a special way of treating that water but at least it can serve to clean because if you go to a big hospital, the big chunk of the water is actually for cleaning. So I think there is a way we can have that waiver to dig boreholes, to have water to keep our facilities clean,” added Atwine.
However, Amayo denied existence of such a policy that bars the construction of boreholes in urban areas, but warned the Ministry of Health that such a move would expose the hospitals to high health risks like cholera outbreaks, and if this happens, National Water and Sewerage Corporation shouldn’t be blamed in case the cholera becomes unmanageable.
“Otherwise, we have no problem, we can give you boreholes, if you want to turn yourselves into an unhealthy institution that is very good for us, but should cholera come, let nobody blame us. Should cholera come, you come to Parliament and explain why cholera is unmanageable,” added Amayo.
High water bills continue to be a challenge in government Hospitals to the extent of disconnecting some of the hospitals from water which often causes public uproar.
