MPs Approve Additional UGX 135bn for Water and Environment Sector

Parliament has approved an extra 135. 6 billion shillings to the water and environment sector in the financial year 2019/2020.   

The MPs approved the proposal from the Natural Resources committee on the need to allocate funds to key unfunded projects in the sector.

Among the key unfunded projects include 15  billion shillings for environment management in 134 local governments and  10 billion shillings to purchase extra six units of water for production equipment for regional centres to support both the construction of new valley tanks and to help de-silt valley tanks.

There is also a funding gap of 20 billion shillings to complete the Water and Sanitation Development Facility that cover districts in Eastern and North-eastern Uganda with the highest poverty levels in the country, higher than the National Average of 36 percent.    

The facility or project is expected to construct and provide piped water in 60 Small Towns and Rural Growth Centres. The committee noted the funds must be allocated extra funds because, in many areas across the region, there are also higher incidences of jiggers, cholera and dysentery associated with lack of clean and safe water. 

The committee also decried the budget cuts to the sector in general. 

According to the ministerial statement, the sector has been allocated 1 trillion shillings in the 2019/2020 budget estimates. This is a budget cut by 263.8 billion shillings from the 1.3 trillion shillings in the 2018/2019 budget.

The cuts were mainly in the budgets for ministry of water and environment (255.7 billion shillings) and 8.2 billion shillings at National Forestry Authority.

 The budget reduction for Ministry of Water and Environment was attributed to the exit of some Donor funded projects in the Public Investment Plan for the FY 2019/20 especially the Joint Water and Environment Sector Support Program (JWESSP).  

 The committee also noted that the budget for local governments will remain at 59.7 billion shillings and yet the number of districts has increased from 128 in 2018/2019 to a projected 134 districts in 2019/2020. This is likely to have a severe impact on the performance of local government.

For the environment sector, the committee recommends a 10-15 percent share of the national budget which would be between 4- 6 trillion shillings in the 2019/2020 total budget estimate of 40 trillion shillings.