CSE discusses the sustainability of groundwater in Uganda with the Ministry of Water and Environment and sensitizes the legislators of Uganda on groundwater recharge

Kampala, August 05, 2024

Centre for Science and Environment has been working with Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE), Uganda for over three years to help them strengthen their policies and strategies on water and sanitation in the rural areas. CSE and MWE been working on various scoping studies to understand the challenges in water and sanitation and has published reports on the same. To move ahead the team had conducted various capacity building programs and conducted various workshops and meetings in India, Tanzania and Nigeria. 

CSE team worked closely with formal working group from MWE to understand the gaps in their existing policies/strategies/framework in the water and sanitation sectors in rural areas of the country. A joint note developed by CSE and MWE identified that the dependency of the groundwater in the rural areas will increase by 30 per cent. Based on this, the two teams came together in a roundtable at Kampala on August 05, 2024 to discuss the groundwater recharge options for the country with a special focus on the legislation and strategies on rainwater harvesting in Uganda. CSE presented the different rainwater harvesting policies and legislations in India and the consequent impact on groundwater in the country.  Around 30 officials from Ministry of Water and Environment were present in the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Joseph Oriono, Commissioner for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda and Eng. Christopher Tumusiime, Commissioner, Water Utilities Regulation at the Ministry of Water and Environment. Senior officials like the Assistant Commissioners and the coordinators of the different leading projects on water and sanitation were also present in the meeting. CSE team was represented by Aditya Batra, Senior Director, Board and Funding, Susmita Sengupta, Senior Programme Manager, Water Programme and Pradeep Kumar Mishra, Deputy Programme, Water Programme. 

The roundtable was followed by meeting with the legislators, senior government official, representatives of non-profits on the upcoming bill on rainwater harvesting for Uganda. For this, CSE was especially invited to the parliament of Uganda to sensitize the different stakeholders especially the legislators on the need of groundwater recharge in Uganda. CSE was invited to give its inputs on the upcoming rainwater harvesting bill. Around 15 people came together for the meeting to discuss the need of groundwater recharge in the bill. The meeting in the Uganda parliament was chaired by the private legislator Hon. Appolo Ofwono Yeri. CSE along with MWE have been requested to help the special committee of the parliament (on rainwater harvesting) headed by Hon. Appolo Ofwono Yeri to develop the RWH bill of Uganda by integrating the groundwater recharge in the bill.