Remarks at the Opening Ceremony of Uganda Water and Environment Week

Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa,

Minister for Water and Environment, Hon. Sam Cheptoris,

Minister of State for Water, Hon. Aisha Sekindi,

Permanent Secretaries,

District Chairpersons,

Resident District Commissioners, 

Chief Administrative Officers, 

All District and Local Governments Officials, 

Religious Leaders, 

Representatives from the Private Sector,

Members of the Media, 

Members of the UN family,

All protocol observed, 

I am very grateful to be with you at this official opening of Uganda’s 7th Water and Environment Week on the theme: “Rethinking collective action and innovative solutions to water, environment, and climate change crisis in Uganda”. This week-long event will be exploring this theme, through four sub themes: 1) Sustainable access and utilization of water and environmental resources for economic development, 2) Nature-based solutions to solve water, environment and climate change crisis, 3) Resilient built environment and infrastructure in urban settings, and 4) Protection of lives, livelihoods, and property to support community resilience and stability. 

Currently in Uganda, our National water coverage for safe and clean water for human consumption was 70 per cent (67 per cent in rural areas and 72 per cent in urban areas) in 2022/23, an improvement of 0.3 per cent increase from the 2021/22 level of 69.8 per cent[1]. And there is however more work to be done to meet the target of the 3rd National Development Plan of 85% coverage in rural areas and 100% coverage in urban areas by the year 2025. The Water and Environment Week provides us the opportunity to collectively deliberate and come up with practical innovative solutions to meet this target. 

Current Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) investments significantly fall short of the sector financing needs. There is still a challenge of inadequate funding for the WASH sector. Therefore, more resources are needed to ensure that the country meets its national commitments[2]. There is also the need to ensure equity in the distribution of WASH financing, as currently, Rural WASH receives a lower share of the national budget compared to Urban WASH. It is important to address this disparity because most of the population in Uganda resides in rural areas and most endemic outbreaks are at local governments. 

Additionally, improved institutional capacity is required to assist and facilitate policy reforms and citizen’s participation at the appropriate levels of decision-making and policy implementation on the ground to improve access to safe water and a sustainable environment. As the theme of the week suggest, there is the need to discuss and come up with practical solutions to strengthen and create new and innovative partnerships including with the private sector, civil society, academic and research institutions at national and international levels to enhance access to safe water and the flow of benefits from a sustainably managed environment for the people of Uganda.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the environment is undergoing tremendous change from human actions. Conservative estimates suggest that cost of environmental degradation in Uganda have been between 4-12 percent of the gross national income[3]. We need to re-think how we do development to ensure the impact to environment is taken into consideration, by internalizing the external impacts of production so that the environment is sustainably managed. 

And in all our endeavors for efficient and effective service delivery, we will have to enhance the role of coordination to deliver water services to Ugandans. Thinking through ever effective coordination mechanisms is crucial – more effective coordination mechanisms will drive us towards ever more efficiencies as regards costs and effectiveness in ensuring a more holistic approach; also we are likely to get better resource mobilization – coordination can help mobilize financial and technical resources from various sources making it easier to fund and implement projects. (we will need significant more money – but not entirely obvious to all that we are utilizing the resources available to us well enough).

Coordination will also help in terms of alignment - that all stakeholders are working towards a common goal, easier to harness efforts and synergies. Coordination is also useful to enhance sustainability over the long term due to the systems and partnerships and last but not least, coordination supports transparency and accountability – when we are all brought together ensuring our actions are pointing towards the right direction, it is easier to see who is doing what, how their contributions add to the collective results etc.  

Finally, I want to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations System in Uganda stand with the Government and the people of Uganda to chart the path for prosperous growth and sustainable environment. Through the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, we have committed and aligned with the Government’s priorities to ensure that Uganda’s natural resources and environment are sustainably managed and protected, and people, especially the vulnerable and marginalized, have the capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change and disaster risks. We will continue to catalyze financing and partnerships to achieve the objectives of the National Development Plan, particularly on Natural Resources, Environment, Climate Change, Land and Water Management Programme. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me conclude by thanking Government and all stakeholders for the effort and commitment in putting together this programme. It is my sincere hope that this week’s activities can provide further inspiration and guidance towards these efforts, helping ensure that our water and environment is managed sustainably to ensure perpetual flow of benefits to the people of Uganda. I wish you an enjoyable, productive, and inspiring discussion.

Thank you. 
 

[1] INVESTING IN WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE UGANDA BUDGET BRIEF (FINANCIAL YEAR 2023/24), UNICEF

[2] INVESTING IN WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE UGANDA BUDGET BRIEF (FINANCIAL YEAR 2023/24), UNICEF

[3] Republic of Uganda. 2001. State of Environment for Uganda 2002/2001. NEMA. Kampala, Uganda (Cited in https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/2001-068-3.pdf)