KAMPALA – The National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) is seeking for Shs4Bn to be used for establishing a sewerage system for Kiruddu hospital, following complaints from residents that the stench has become a menace for the residents in Makindye.
The revelation was made by the Corporation Managing Director, Eng. Dr Silver Mugisha who was appearing before the Parliament Committee of Natural Resources, when Florence Namayanja (Bukoto East) asked NWSC to reveal the plans they have to curb the stench from Kiruddu hospital to the surrounding environment.
Mugisha told the MPs that KCCA and Ministry of Health had notified NWSC of the challenge because they had failed at dealing with sewerage system because the number of patients increased, so the septic tank wasn’t big enough to handle the sewerage
He explained: “We have been discussing that issue with the Ministry of Health and KCCA, I am happy to report that we are in advanced stages of putting a packaged sewerage treatment plant at Kiruddu so that that sewerage nuisance can reduce.”
Mugisha continued, “We are working with the Ministry of Finance to see how we can get additional resources because it costs quite some money. In the meantime, the Ministry has put in place emptiers so when the sewerage gets full, they bring it to our system for treatment. We are in need of around Shs4Bn to work on that system.”
Kiruddu hospital was constructed at a cost of USD10.3m (approximately Shs37,790,899,706) loan from the African Development Bank, but following the completion of the project in 2015, the facility was upgraded from a health Centre IV to hospital status.
KCCA later signed a memorandum of understanding with Mulago National Referral Hospital administration, to manage and maintain facilities at Kiruddu, pending Mulago’s rehabilitation.
However, following numerous complaints of the residents around the hospital, KCCA issued a notice to close the health facility on 26th April 2018 on grounds that the facility had become a nuisance to the community, on the pretext that Mulago had failed to control the stench.
However, it isn’t the first time the subject of sewerage at Kiruddu hospital is popping out in Parliament, with the same matter having been raised in the 2018/2019 Ministerial Policy statement for the Ministry of Health report authored by the Health Committee of Parliament.
Committee raised concerns over the delayed construction of waste management facilities (lagoons) and the resultant mosquitoes which are becoming public nuisances to the patients and the neighbourhoods in Kiruddu and Kawempe Hospitals respectively.
It was also revealed that whereas the design for Kiruddu Hospital in the original design had a provision for a sewer line, this was not provided for, creating a need to construct a lagoon for the hospital.
