Stone Family Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, and Water Mission are set to launch an innovative professional water utility in Uganda that will create sustainable, safe water access for households, businesses, and institutions in the country’s Luuka District.
The Stone Family Foundation, GF (Georg Fischer), and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation awarded grants to Water Mission to support customer-centred water service provision for communities in Uganda through a professional utility.
The $596,000 (Shs22.1 billion) investments will advance the development of a new and promising model for water service delivery in Uganda’s Luuka District.
“We’re excited to invest in Water Mission’s ambitious program to provide professional, safe water access to rural customers to their homes,” said Stone Family WASH Managing Director Tom Chaplin. “Building a financially viable and sustainable utility model for safe water delivery at scale in rural areas addresses an urgent need that has not yet been solved by traditional NGO approaches that we hope to see replicated elsewhere.”
Since 2001, Water Mission has served 8 million people in over 60 countries, including 1.3 million people in Uganda. Water Mission is now launching a professional water utility to meet the safe water needs of rural communities within Uganda’s Luuka District. The utility will have the capacity to professionally manage both public and private water access points.
As part of the utility’s launch, Water Mission is engaging experts in best practices in utility management, business development, customer service, human resources, and public-private partnerships. In the first phase of development, the newly created professional utility will upgrade payment and metering technology for a market segment of communities to more efficient pre-paid metering, reducing non-revenue water and improving customer service. This first phase will also include the sale of household connections for hundreds of customers in Southern Luuka District, Uganda.
“Our grant empowers Water Mission to do what they do best: increase sustainable safe water access in rural communities,” said Li Sierra, Managing Director, GF Water Foundation, GF (Georg Fischer.) “Our partnership will ensure that thousands of lives will be changed through this program, creating better public health and new economic opportunities.”
Just 9% of people in rural areas of Uganda have access to safely managed drinking water services. Launching a professional water utility requires expanding new infrastructure within the service area, maintaining systems in the long term, taking over long-term operation and management of safe water systems from communities, and engaging global experts with significant experience and expertise to internalize and scale a customer-focused business approach.
“We are pleased to invest in Water Mission’s work in Uganda to ensure reliable services from a professional water utility,” said Hilton Foundation Senior Program Officer, Safe Water, Nabil Chemaly. “This investment will help bring about new, innovative, market-based solutions that will increase reliable, safe, and convenient professional water access and delivery at the household level.
The professional water utility model meets the growing demand in rural communities for professionally managed water services. Water Mission’s utility has the opportunity to fill a critical market gap and the potential to serve as a replicable model for providing Ugandans around the country with high-quality and customer-centric safe water services.
