ICT Minister hails National Water on prepaid metering system

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | National Water and Sewarage Corporation (NWSC) has been hailed by the Minister of ICT and National Guidance Frank Tumwebaze for using local software developers in developing a smart water metering system.

Tumwebaze was reacting to news that NWSC are in initial stages of developing prepaid water meters, and that they recently saved millions of dollars in licences by designing their own billing system.

He was happy that the NWSC IT team are tapping from Uganda’s own innovation ecosystem and encouraged them to consider getting even more local input to their developments. “Issue it out as a challenge to them (local innovation hubs ) and assess the best solutions,” Tumwebaze said.

Tumwebaze added that “what we discourage is for government agencies and private sector like telecos to spend big on IT solutions from multi-tech firms when same can be got from our local ecosystem.”

While launching a performance improvement programme for staff in the Kampala area on Wednesday, Managing Director of NWSC Dr. Eng. Silver Mugisha announced the innovations that he said will spur the corporation in 2018.

He revealed that NWSC teams are developing a prepaid water metering system and the corporatin is working on plans to assemble water meters in Uganda.

According to Mugisha, NWSC will develop its own pre-paid metering system instead of spending 44million dollars to buy and install the prepaid water metering systems.

“Our IT team recently developed an internal billing system and the corporation saved a lot of money. The team has started working on various innovations and ensure that the technology is rolled out. This will save us money to invest in service delivery projects” he added

In addition, NWSC in it’s corporate plan 2018-2021 has plans to set up a local meter assembling plant to provide jobs for Ugandans and reduce the delays that are experienced when importing water meters.

The corporation will also develop partnerships in the production of pelletes and biofuel through sewage sludge reuse. This will provide an alternative fuel source and mitigate the effects of tree cutting for cooking.

The General Manager Eng Andrew Sekayizzi assured Kampala residents that a number of interventions and water supply stabilization plans are being implemented to improve water supply in various parts of the city.