Power outage affects water supply in Gulu city

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Power outages have affected the supply of water in Gulu city and its outskirts triggering an acute shortage of water.

Gulu city has for almost one week been experiencing persistent power outages which is the backbone for water pumping and supply within Gulu city and the outskirts by the National Water and Sewerage Cooperation (NWSC).

Umeme attributes the problems to the breakdown of its power substation in Layibi trading centre, which supplies the city area and its outskirt and is yet to be rectified.

Umeme claims that it had informed all its customers including NWSC of the challenges, but also claims that its standby power generator which would have been used to address the problems at its main reservoir dam at Oitino has also broken down.

Ivan Tekakwo, the Public Relations Officer of NWSC in Gulu city says that they are unable to effectively pump and supply water to the more than 11,000 customers due to the problems of the persistent power outage and standby power generator breakdown.

According to Tekakwo, NWSC needs to supply ten million liters of water daily to its clients but notes that less than half of the capacity is being done during this period.

Doreen Ogenga, the manager of Umeme in Gulu city admits that the problems is beyond their control, noting that they are attributed to bad weather.

She explained that they are aware of the problems and are developing a long-lasting mechanism to address them.

Irene Adukan, the Manager of Bomah Hotel said that throughout the period, they had been relying on water from their reserve tank.

Gulu has over 11,000 customers who require over 10 million liters of water supply from NWSC daily.

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