Joy as NWSC Branch Manager Donates 2000-litre Capacity Water Tank to Yumbe Gov’t Prison

YUMBE: The administrators of Yumbe government prison in Yumbe district were on Monday treated to excitement after receiving a 2000 – litre capacity water tank from Zubair Isa Arima, the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) Yumbe branch Manager.

Arima donated the water tank in fulfilment of a personal pledge he made to the prison authority shortly after his transfer from Tororo to Yumbe district in June last year.

“Upon visiting the prison, I noticed a high demand for water and there was no facility for water storage. So, I took it upon myself in line with the NWSC goals and objectives of supporting and giving back to our communities and also one of the objectives of strengthening customer-stakeholder relationship, to donate this 2000 litre tank to help the prison reserve water in times of scarcity,” Arima said while handing over the tank to the prison authority.

He noted that for Yumbe Prisons internal facilities to access reliable water, there is need for storage tanks.

“That guided my commitment in line with the objectives of the corporation to deliver the tank for the government prison in Yumbe,” Arima stated.

He observed that generally, they have been having a challenge of little water in Yumbe but due to optimized rationing, they have managed to serve different communities with water and ensure that at least every zone gets served.

Arima said, there is a progressive plan to improve on water production, adding that currently, there is ongoing works to rehabilitate Morodu production well.

“We hope upon its completion, we are going to have quite a high production of water and the prison will be able to get sufficient water,” Arima promised.

According to Arima, currently their average water production is about 1,110m³ per day which is not sufficient enough to meet the current and growing demand in Yumbe.

He said the estimated population in Yumbe is over 600,000 people and as a result, the average and estimated water production of 5,500m³ per day is required to meet the growing demand

However, he said there is a planned water supply stabilisation project coming on board that will improve the water situation in Yumbe.

“The project will add more six production wells on top of the existing production wells and the production wells will be of a high yielding capacity – meaning we are going to produce enough water sufficient for the growing demand. And we are also looking at extending our service coverage so that the refugees and the host communities in Yumbe get sufficient water including extending our lines to areas without water so that all customers get clean and safe water in abundance,” Arima said.

Arima further extended his sincere appreciation to stakeholders, institutional leaders, valued customers, and the Yumbe community for their collaboration, support and partnership. He emphasized the importance of reporting any water infrastructure damage, such as vandalism or pipe bursts and leaks, to NWSC’s toll-free lines: 0800200977 / 0800300977, to ensure prompt action and minimize water loss.

While receiving the donation, ASP Rashid Alidro, the Officer in Charge of Uganda Prisons Yumbe, expressed gratitude to Arima for offering the tank to Yumbe prisons.

“I’m profoundly and extremely happy to receive this donation from the Branch Manager of NWSC in Yumbe to preserve water for inmates. I have a population of 222 inmates. This population is huge to fetch water from the borehole and the well which are located approximately 500meters away from the prison, which is a security jeopardy,” Alidro remarked.

He said with the coming of the donation, their security is greatly going to be improved.

“You can’t take prisoners to fetch water outside because every other time, they will be thinking about escaping to go home. So, this is already a remedy to that. I want to salute and thank Mr. Arima for this timely gesture that he took upon himself to think deeply that this is a requirement for the prison, and I want to say thank you so much for being a good leader and a good coordinator!” Alidro stressed.

Alidro noted that before Arima’s presence in Yumbe, they used not to have water. He said the line was put in place but they were not receiving services.

“Now during his tenure, we are seeing water, we are using clean water from NWSC. I have been writing to prison headquarters that may be money should not be paid to NWSC because we are not seeing services, but we are now seeing improved service delivery with Arima’s coming to Yumbe,” Alidro said.

Relatedly, ACP Leni Ndori, the Regional Prisons Commander North West region, appreciated Arima for the great donation of a water tank.

“This tank will really serve a very big purpose in the lives of our dear inmates. And I want to say thank you so much! You can see we are lucky now we have a female ward which has been donated also by the European Union and Uganda Prisons Service (UPS) has put up another ward which has a capacity of 200 inmates.

Now as we were doing this, Arima comes in with a tank which is going to be our reservoir tank so that these inmates should be able to bath, should be able to have toilet facilities within the ward which is a very great improvement and as UPS we are really fighting a war of eradicating bucket system of manually transporting human waste from the wards to the toilet and we can say with this donation, that one has ended as far as Yumbe prison is concerned. I really want to thank you (Arima) so much and send my greetings to your NWSC bosses,” Ndori said.