We need to change our mindset in order to develop capacity - Africa Water Association President

KAMPALA - Dr. Eng Silver Mugisha President, Africa Water Association (AfWA) and also Uganda’s National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) Managing Director says that we need a mindset change as Ugandans to know that we can make things happen in terms of solving problems of deforestation and wetlands encroachment.

During the Uganda Water and Environment Week 2023 hosted by the Ministry of Water and Environment, as one of the panelists, Dr. Mugisha said; “We need to mobilize our own finances, we need to have a mindset that we do not get consultants everywhere in order to develop our own capacity. We are aware of the need to be practical in the way we do our things because the problems affecting water and the environment are known, so we do not have to rely on other people to tell us what to do, that is the mindset we need which will solve the problems.”

On the issue of Public Private Partnership, Dr. Eng. Silver Mugisha says that the public sector does better than the private sector although it is extremely important to work together for example the public sector is expected to lay pipes, supply materials to mention but a few. He adds that the public and private sectors need to work together so that they can exploit synergies.

It should be noted when Dr. was reelected President Africa Water Association, he said that the re-election is a vote of confidence in Uganda’s utility management practices.

Dr. Mugisha will now steer AfWA, a professional association with over 100 utility members from over 50 countries across Africa from 2023 to 2025. He became the first Ugandan to hold the position for the second time in a row after he was re-elected at the AfWA Annual General Boarding Meeting held on Saturday 18 February 2023, at Sofitel Hotel Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The board also voted Kampala, Uganda as the next host of the AFWA Congress and Exhibition. The high-level AFWA Congress and Exhibition is scheduled for February 2025.

Meanwhile, Uganda will host the 7th Nile Basin development Forum in Kampala on 28th September 2023. The Forum is taking place at a time when the region is experiencing increasing impacts of climate change on water resources, which impacts have a potential to exacerbate the challenges of the basin management in a complex natural environment. Implied in the theme, therefore, is the urgent need to implement structural and non-structural measures to build the resilience of the Nile Basin to impacts of climate change.

The Nile Basin Development Forum (NBDF) is a high- level regional event convened every three years by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) in collaboration with its Member States and in partnership with development partners. The event is a science-policy-practice dialogue that provides an opportunity for constructive reflection on contemporary information, knowledge and best practices as well as building partnerships among professionals, in transboundary water resources management and development.

The 7th in its series, NBDF 2023 will focus on the theme:

Deepening Nile cooperation: Accelerating the achievement of SDGs in a changing climate Event format

The 7th NBDF will have a hybrid format. The hybrid format, will comprise of the following sequential segments:

• Opening session: 28th September 2023
• Virtual webinars: 3rd -27th October 2023
• Closing session: 30th October 2023 – 1st November 2023.
• Target audience

NBI governance, senior government officials, policy makers, researchers, academia, development partners, civil society, private sector and the media. Others are local communities in the Nile Basin countries, as well as representatives of river basin organizations.