National water to disconnect Gov’t agencies over unpaid bills

The NWSC public relations officer, Sam Apedel, who talked to this reporter on phone yesterday said they issued a fourteen-day notice to Ministry of Finance, but no response has come from them.

“We issued a fourteen-day notice to the finance ministry but didn’t get any response from them. We plan on disconnecting the agencies if the water bills are not cleared as soon as possible,” he said.

In a letter dated October 20, 2022, Silver Mugisha, the managing director of NWSC, told the finance ministry that they appreciated their support towards settlement of water consumption charges in various MDAs on a quarterly basis, but that the funds the ministry is releasing are not enough to clear the huge water bill.

“The funds being released are not sufficient enough to clear all water bills and as a result, the bills have accumulated,” the letter read.

Mugisha said as of June 30, 2022, Uganda Police Force had outstanding arrears of over sh20b, Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs sh14.5b, Uganda Prisons sh8b, Nebbi Hospital sh763.8m, Arua Hospital sh224.2m and Ministry of Health sh1b, Masaka Hospital sh185.8b.

Others were Hoima Hospital sh148.9m, China-Uganda Freindship Hospital sh1b, Entebbe Hospital sh385.1and Jinja Hospital sh1b.

NWSC requested that sh7b be deemed paid and be offset from the current Value Added Tax (VAT) obligations on a monthly basis for the next 3 months. The letter indicated that VAT paid against the billings.