Agency
The main water transmission pipelines supplying Gulu City from the multi-billion Karuma Water Project are increasingly vulnerable to road accidents, a situation that has affected the reliability of water supply to thousands of residents.
Barely four months after the last incident, another truck on Friday collided with the water pipelines at Amwa Swamp in Oyam District, causing cracks that forced a shutdown of water supply to Gulu City, Omoro, and Oyam districts.
According to the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), the latest crash is the fourth incident in just six months along the 69.5-kilometre Karuma-Gulu transmission line.
Ivan Tekakwo, the NWSC spokesperson for Northern Uganda, told Mega Fm on Tuesday that due to the repeated incidents, NWSC had initiated high-level discussions with the Ministry of Works and Transport regarding the installation of guardrails along critical sections of the road to prevent future damage. He, however, noted that no feedback had yet been received from the ministry.
The Karuma-Gulu Water Project, jointly funded by the government, KfW, and the World Bank, is boosting water supply to Gulu City with an estimated 10 million cubic meters of water supplied daily.
The city, with an estimated population of over 300,000 people, requires a total daily supply of 14 million liters to serve the more than 13,000 clients connected to NWSC taps.
