Once complete in April 2026, the project will provide clean water to at least 400,000 people in Gulu City and surrounding towns along the Gulu–Karuma Highway.
Gulu City, Uganda: In January 2025, the Ministry of Water and Environment, together with the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), launched a Sh. 2.1 billion full-scale source protection and clean water supply project in Gulu City aimed at expanding the capacity (volume) of safe drinking water supply, at the same time protecting the only available natural source of water in the area.
Under the stewardship of NWSC Gulu regional office the, the World Bank funded project alias “Integrated Water Management and Development Project (IWMDP)” is focusing on improving the quantity and quality of water supply from 10 million liters per day to 30 million liters by 2040, while also protecting Oyitino dam and streams which is the main source of natural water apparently in Gulu City from extinction due changing weather patterns including climate change.
The project is aimed at supplying safe drinking water to at least 400,000 people living in Gulu City and other towns along the Gulu-Karuma highway, including Koro-Abili, Bobi, Palenga(Omoro district), Mina-kulu, Kamdini(Oyam district), and Karuma(Kiryandongo district).
Emmy Brian Okot (Engineer), a water project consultant and coordinator of the project, said that since the ground-breaking ceremony in the first phase in January this year, the second phase of the work has taken off on Oyitino dam and stream in Bardege-Layibi division, Gulu City, in July 2025.
This featured several activities, including pitching of 300-meter tunnel stones on the dams and streams, cleaning the streams through solid waste removal, clearing around the water source, and engaging the locals who use the water source on alternative livelihoods.
Eng. Okot further explained that the ongoing implementation comes as a result of their first inaugural meeting in July 2022, followed by the design phase in 2023 that led to the commencement of the project in January 2025, and by April 2026, the project will be done.
He, however, noted that the Oyitino dam and streams protection project shall cover the Bardege-Layibi city division wards of Kasubi, Lacor, Bardege, Kanyagoga, Kulu-Keno and Olinga-including six other motorized operated boreholes in Gulu City and the abstract point on River Nile in Nora Village in Oyam district.
Similarly, Innocent Twesigye(Engineer), NWSC Gulu area Manager said that due to continuous water pollution by the locals, they were faced with the problem of high cost of treating the polluted water(s) in the Oyitino dams and stream caused by locals’ poor waste disposal practices that ends up in the water sources including farm chemicals, plastics and polythene and other non-decadent compounds. He says that they use expensive chemicals including chlorine to treat the water.
Eng. Twesigye also noted that they are also looking at addressing the issue of urban farming along the water catchment area on the stream, where locals practicing such contaminates the sources using chemicals that ends up in the water/stream of using the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE)’s water source protection guidelines of 2013.
On improving water volumes, Eng. Twesigye also stated that climatic factors have affected the normal water supply of the stream, where in dry seasons the volume of the water gets lower, hence they are using the project to address it once and for all.
300 offered alternative source of livelihood outside the Water Catchment.
As the project proceeds, at least 300 residents living along the Oyitino stream are being offered poultry and piggery as an alternative source of livelihood apart from using the Oyitino stream catchment area for domestic and urban farming, since the area has currently been taken up for the improved water supply projects.
Michael Otim, the Chairman of Acholi Private Sector Company Development Limited (APSCDL), a partner organization working under the project to offer the alternative source of livelihood, said that they have started training the 300 beneficiaries who are divided into 20 different groups of poultry and piggery rearing in Bardege-Layibi division.
Otim revealed that the training focuses on basic knowledge of one-month-old chicks rearing in terms of feeding and housing, among other vital things they are supposed to know as far as poultry keeping and piggery is concerned.
He added that in addition to the supply of chicks, the 20 groups are also receiving training on village savings, and they will soon start saving money as another venture to benefit them.
Sharifah Atimango, one of the beneficiaries and a resident of Kasubi Central Cell, Kasubi Ward, venturing in poultry keeping, said she is currently keeping 120 one-month-old chicks that she got from the Acholi Private Sector Company Development Limited (APSCDL).
Atimango, who used to cultivate vegetables along the Oyitino stream, said she is very hopeful that the chicks will mature to benefit her, though she is facing some challenges, such as feeding, as the birds need a lot of water and food, eating up to 250 grams per day.
The one-year project is being executed by Aid Environment Africa, Amref Health Africa, and Heifer International Uganda, plus other sister contractors, including Acholi Private Sector Company Development Limited, Good-luck and Sons Construction Company Limited, Community Empowerment & Development (CEED), Evergreen Forestry, and Eco-Ways Uganda Limited- all contracted by NWSC as their immediate supervisor.
The Integrated Water Management and Development Project is being funded by the World Bank at a tune of Uganda Sh 2.1 billion.
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