Katosi Water Works

The water treatment facility is under construction in the lakeside town of Katosi, in Ntenjeru subcounty, Mukono District, in the Buganda Region of Uganda. Katosi is approximately 28 kilometres (17 mi), by road, south of the town of Mukono, where the district headquarters are located.[2] This is about 50 kilometres (31 mi), by road, south-east of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.[3]

As far back as 2011, the Uganda government, through the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), began to make plans to construct a new water treatment facility at Katosi, to augment the facilities at Ggaba (Ggaba I, II & III), to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding population of Kampala and surrounding districts.[4]

GKW Consult GmbH, in association with Alliance Consultants Limited, were contracted by the NWSC to provide consulting services for the preparation of designs for the new Drinking Water Treatment Plant near Katosi. Tendering and supervision of the construction works, are part of this consulting contract.[5] The design also includes the evacuation pipeline to a storage reservoir on Nsumba Hill, about 12 kilometres (7 mi), to the north-west.[6]

When completed, the plant is expected to have initial capacity of 160,000 cubic meters (160,000,000 L) of water daily, expandable to 240,000 cubic meters (240,000,000 L) of water daily.[7] The target population is the estimated 4.5 million people by the year 2025 and 7 million by the year 2040, expected to inhabit the city of Kampala, and its surrounding metropolis.[5]

The water treatment facility is wholly owned by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, a government parastatal company, responsible for provision of potable water and sewerage services nationwide.[1]

The construction of the Katosi Water Treatment Plant is part of a master plan called Kampala Water Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project, which was developed in 2011. The project involves improving water supply and improve sanitation services to all of the 2 million inhabitants of the city of Kampala at that time.[8][9]

As part of that program, which also involved the improvement of the NWSC Ggaba Water Treatment Plant, called for the construction of a new 120,000 cubic meters (120,000,000 L) per day water treatment plant in Katosi, Mukono District, east of Kampala.[4]

The feasibility study was conducted by BRL Ingenierie SA, IGIP and WE Consult. In June 2016, GKW Consult GmbH and Alliance Consultants Limited were selected as consulting engineers. Tenders for the construction contract were advertised in the first quarter of 2017, with bid evaluation expected in May 2017.[10]

The contract was awarded to a consortium comprising Suez International of Egypt and Sogea-Satom of France. In June 2018, NWSC signed a binding contract with the consortium to design and build Katosi Water Works, together with the related intake, storage and transmission infrastructure at a contract price of €84 million (USh378 billion). Construction started in January 2019 and is expected to conclude in March 2021.[7][11] As of May 2020, construction was estimated to have progressed to 80 percent. Test pumping is planned during the fourth quarter of 2020, with commissioning expected during the first quarter of 2021.[12]

The funding of the Kampala Water Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project (WATSAN), is as illustrated in the table below:[13]

• Note: Totals are slightly off due to rounding.

In February 2019, an agreement was signed between the French Development Agency (AFD), represented by Stéphanie Rivoal, the French Ambassador to Uganda and the government of Uganda, represented by Matia Kasaija, the Ugandan Finance Minister for a 20-year USh630 billion (€150 million) loan, representing the EIB's and AFD's funding participation on this project.[14][15]

• Ministry of Water and Environment (Uganda)

• Website of National Water & Sewerage Corporation
• Website of Ministry of Water and Environment (Uganda)
• NWSC to increase water supply by 50% As of 5 August 2015.