The Minister for Water, Lands and Environment, Henry Muganwa Kajura, has expressed concern about the country’s slow progress in expanding the provision of sanitation and a safe water supply in urban areas. All urban centres were due to have piped water services by the end of this year but the water and sanitation reform programme had reached just 30 percent of the targeted centres, the independent Ugandan ‘Monitor’ newspaper quoted Kajura as saying at a national consultative workshop in Kampala. Kajura said only 12 of 78 urban centres in Uganda - Kampala, Jinja, Entebbe, Masaka, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti, Lira and Gulu - had piped sewerage systems. “Less than 10 percent of the population in these towns are connected to the sewerage systems, and the general sanitation situation is very unsatisfactory,” he added. Only 50,000 [from an estimated population of 20.6 million] have access to safe drinking water, Patrick Kahangire, Director of the Water Development Department, added.
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