FACILITIES IN KASESE DISTRICT

Water and Sanitation Sector

The average safe and clean water coverage in the district is estimated to be 84.1%. By December 2005, there were 1,106 protected springs, 1,557 Gravity Flow Scheme (GFS) taps (including illegal connections) and 170 boreholes in the district.

From January 2006 to date, we have built 178 water points. These are estimated to be serving 31,350 people.

These water points are from the following water sources:

• 78 protected springs – serving 15,600 people
• 5 boreholes - serving 1,500 people
• 95 tap-stands of gravity flow schemes as follows:
• Kinyamaghana GFS – 21 taps,
• Kihara GFS – 13 taps,
• Munkunyu GFS – 6 taps,
• Kibandaghara GFS – 15 taps,
• Kiywebe GFS – 40 taps – all serving 14,250 people.

During the same period, 90 boreholes were rehabilitated and they are serving 27,000 people

On-going projects

Under the water sub sector, the construction of four GFS is going on and these are;

• The construction of Karalike Gravity Flow Scheme, which will have 48 tap-stands which will serve 7,200.
• The construction of Hima Town Council Water Supply, which will have more than 500 private connections.
• The construction of Ibanda Water Supply – it will have 400 private connections, 20 public kiosks and 27 institutions (schools, Health centres and churches applied).
• The construction of Bwera Water Supply – so far 800 private connections have applied. But the scheme has the capacity to serve 33,000 people in the urban centre. 

Roads

Kasese district has a road network of approximately 1,336 km. These are categorised as follow:

• National Trunk Roads        - 233 Km
• District Feeder Roads        - 466 Km
• Community Access Roads - 637 Km

Tarmac road

Three roads covering a distance of (km) have been tarmacked;

• The Katunguru – Kikorongo – Kasese - Fort portal road
• Kikorongo – Bwera road
• Kasese – Kilembe roads.

• 104 km of District feeder roads have been cumulatively rehabilitated.
• 60 km of Community Access Roads have been cumulatively opened.
• 466 Km of District feeder roads are maintained annually.

Ongoing projects

One road of 8.9 km is being opened up, while 20.5 km of roads are being rehabilitated. These include:

• Opening of Kirembo – Kasemire – Kasisyo - Kagando – Karujumba roads (8.9 km)
• Rehabilitation of Rugendabara – Kithoma (9 Km).
• Rehabilitation of Muhokya – Kibiri (1.5 Km).
• Rehabilitation of Kigoro – Buhaura (5.5 km).
• Rehabilitation of Kyarumba – Kitabona (4.5 Km).

Construction of bridges

• Since 2002, a total of 12 vehicle bridges and 1 foot bridge were done.

Rural Financial Services

There are a total of 19 Savings And Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) in Kasese district that have been formed since your call for PFA. So far they all together have total savings of shs. 309,596,850 and total loans have been shs. 607,856,576. These have a membership of 5,947 people.

Water Supply sanitation

The district is endowed with various water resources, which cover about 12% of the total land area. These include Lake George and Edward, which are shared with Kamwenge and Bushenyi districts and The Democratic republic of Congo in the West. There are also numerous rivers including Mubuku, Sebwe, Nyamwamba, Nyamugasani and Kamyampara flowing from the mountains down to the lower lands and eventually to the lakes. Other rivers such as Rwimi in the North Eastern Border of the district and Lhubilhiha in the Western border are shared by Kabarole district and the DRC respectively.

A large percentage of the domestic water supply facilities in the district utilize ground water. These include springs, Gravity flow schemes and Boreholes. It is currently estimated that there are 1,167 protected up from 1,136, 183 boreholes and about 1,450 GFS taps available for rural water supply with average Access to safe water coverage being estimated at between 80 – 85%. The average functionality of safe water sources in the district stands at 63% down from 76%. There is need to improve on this percentage to over 80% if the objective of providing safe water for all is to be achieved. There are numerous reports of drying water springs which are a real threat to the domestic water supply and in general water resources in the district.

Water supply systems that use surface water include: the National Water and Sewerage Corporation plant, which supplies mainly Kasese Town Council; the Katwe-Kabatooro Urban water supply system which supplies Katwe Town council and Bwera Water supply which serves the 3 sub counties of Bwera, Karambi and Nyakiyumbu. All the three systems have treatment processes with Bwera having the simplest treatment process consisting of Roughing filters, Sedimentation and Rapid sand filters; the other two have chemical treatment processes.

OTHER WATER USES IN THE DISTRICT

Besides domestic water supply, the water resources in the district are currently being utilized for the following activities:

• Hydro Power Production by Kasese Cobalt Company Limited (KCCL) and Kilembe Mines Limited and at a small scale by KAGANDO hospital Complex. Also Tronder Power, a Norwegian electricity-generating company, has contributed water pipes worth Ushs200m
• Industrial processing by KCCL and HIMA cement industries
• Irrigation at Mubuku irrigation scheme
• Recreation and Wildlife at the National Parks

WATER STRESSED AREAS

Despite the rich water resources that the district has, there are still other areas that are water stressed. These are areas without springs, far from flowing rivers and at the lower lake regions were borehole water is salty. These areas are the Kikorongo-lake Katwe sub county area along the Kasese Town to Bwera Border road and Rugendabara, Kitswamba Sub County and Hima Town Council area along Kasese – FortPortal road. All these areas have safe water coverage of less than 50%.

However, effort have been made by the district to design gravity flow schemes using rivers as water sources to try and supply these dry areas. Being surface water sources, treatment systems consisting of Sedimentation, Up-Flow roughing Filters and Slow Sand Filters have been proposed by a consultant.

The Rugendabara Water supply system is proposed to utilize water from Rwimi River and Supply the present and Future population of 9,968 and 20,855 people respectively in the 20-year design life. Total project cost is estimated to be U.Shs 1.9 billion. (69 tapstands, approx. 50 km of pipeline)

The Kikorongo Water supply system is proposed to utilize water from Nyamugasani River and Supply the present and Future population of 12,328 and 29,732 people respectively in the 20-year design life. Total project cost is estimated to be U.Shs 5.3 billion. (95 tapstands, approx. 128 km of pipeline)

WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

The district is among those that have been selected to pilot the decentralization of water resources management activities to the local governments. Plans have been made to establish monitoring points in the rivers and lakes. Other routine activities have also been planned, however implementation is still pending for most of the planned activities. Discharge and abstraction monitoring reports compiled especially by KCCL are forwarded to the district through the District Environment Officer.

IRRIGATION

The irrigation scheme of Mubuku currently occupies a land area of 2,000 Hectares. This is divided into 990 hectares for gravity irrigation and 1010 hectares for diary development. Currently only 516 hectares (irrigated area) is under use. The other 474 hectares is dry, though it is reported to have been surveyed, graded, leveled and some irrigation structures put in place. However this civil works were never completed.

Besides Mubuku irrigation scheme, feasibility studies have also indicated that areas like Katojo in Nyakiyumbu S/C, Nyakatonzi and Kinyamaseke in Munkunyu S/C, Kiburara in Kisinga are all viable for irrigation farming.

Nyamugasani, Kanyapara and possibly Lhubilha Rivers all have great potential to be used for irrigating these proposed areas. River Nyamugasani is capable for providing adequate water to irrigate 2000 hectares while river Kanyampara can be developed to irrigate 50 hectares of land. Water quality analysis for irrigation suitability has also been done on these two rivers and the reports indicate that the water quality is good for irrigation.

A detailed report on feasibility study of the irrigation potential is available in the district for future development.

Infrastructure Statistics
 Admin. Block for Dept funded by the Irish Govt. 08    -        1
No. of classrooms in Government Aided /P/s             -        1892
Classroom pupil ratio                                               -        1:81
No of staff houses                                                   -       131
Furniture irrespective of type                                    -        20130
Latrine stance: Pupil ratio                                        -        1:75

Staffing at District Headquarters Educ &
Sports Dept  2009                                                  -       11
Asst. Education (DEO)                                           -       1
Principal Inspector (DIS)                                        -        1
Sen. Education Officer      (Admin)                          -        1
Inspectors of schools                                             -        2
Inspector of schools (SNE)                                     -        1
Sub-Accountant                                                     -        1
Secretaries (DEO’s & DIS’s)                                   -        2
Office Attendant                                                    -        1

Motor/Vehicles
 Driver (Inspector’s)                                             -      1
Double cabin (Inspectorate Section)                     -      1
Double cabin DMC (SNE)                                    -      1
Motorcycles (All New)                                         -      5

Staffing Gap At in the Dept
 Inspectorate                                                 -  1
DSO   (Sports)                                              -  1
Driver DEO’s                                                 -  1

Enrolment in Primary schools       

Enrolment in Secondary schools                   

Unicef activities in Kasese since 2000

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

Maintenance of the water facilities has been and is still a challenge to the district especially rural based community managed schemes. The functionality level of the water facilities is about 63% down from 76%. Corrosion of borehole parts is a problem especially around the lake regions.

Bwera GFS is a large scheme with a pipe network covering 3 sub counties; a treatment plant was recently included in the scheme. This scheme was poorly managed. This size of scheme will require technically competent personnel to manage its operation and maintenance. The district together with the Directorate of Water Development is currently looking at the option of putting the scheme under a private operator if the full benefits of the scheme are to be realized.