Jinja is the second largest city and economic hub in Uganda. Located 50 miles east of Kampala along the northern shore of Lake Victoria, Jinja covers an area of about 28 square kilometers and is home to 76,000 people. Jinja is famous for being “at the source of the Nile,” which is also the only outlet of Lake Victoria. Many river-based ecotourism companies are located in Jinja, as well as many factories that benefit from the access to Lake Victoria and the Owens Falls Dam power station, which was built in the 1950s and provides low-cost energy to large industrial users. 

Jinja gets 100% of its drinking water from Lake Victoria. Water is managed by National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), the national utility that serves all of Uganda’s urban customers. Essentially anyone piping water directly into their homes gets it from NWSC’s service. Raw water is pumped from Lake Victoria to the Masese Walukuba Treatment Center, located on the north shore of Lake Victoria between the lake and Jinja. The Masese plant has a production capacity of 30,600 square meters per day, and a water capacity utilization of 78%. From the Masese plant, water is sent to 6 different local reservoirs for distribution throughout the region.

Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world, and the largest in Africa. Lake Victoria’s drinking water resources are utilized by over 30 million people in 25 districts around the lake basin area of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. It provides 95% of total fresh surface water in Uganda alone. The lake is 68,000 square kilometers, with a 195,000-square kilometer catchment area, which is relatively small for a lake of its size. Because the lake is so shallow, it has a high evapotranspiration rate and relies heavily on rainfall patterns, with 80% of its refill coming directly from rainfall.  

Jinja has one of the lowest household water consumption rates of any international city, consuming just 28 liters per day. Heavy industrial users make up most of Jinja’s demand. Some of the biggest users include Kakira Sugar Works, Nile Breweries, MM Integrated Steel, and Bidco International Palm Oil Refinery. Physically, Lake Victoria and the Masese Water Treatment plant should be able to provide all the water that Jinja needs. However, Jinja faces several physical and managerial management challenges that lead to water shortages.

The most significant water security issue that Jinja faces is Lake Victoria’s declining water level, which affects both the volume of raw water and pumping infrastructure. Between 2005 and 2013, Jinja faced a series of serious water shortage due to damaged piping infrastructure, low Lake Victoria water levels that exposed pipes, and insufficient pressure to pump water to higher elevations. Notably, Jinja has had substantial managerial losses, due to leakage, dysfunctional metering, and illegal connections. However, a partnership between NWSC and USAID’s Global Water fund has reduced those losses from 47% to 27% between 2013 and 2017.

In recent years, Lake Victoria water levels have been dropping because of hydroelectric dams, rising temperatures, and sporadic rain. In 2005, Lake Victoria’s water elevation dropped to its lowest level since 1951. This particularly hurt Jinja because its water treatment plant was unable to effectively pump water to its treatment plant because of exposed pipelines.

A 2010 study found that the drop in Lake Victoria’s water level between 2004 and 2005 was caused by lack of rainfall (45%) and over-releases from Owens Falls and Kiira Dam (55%). The report further found that the Owens Falls Dam had not been adhering to the operations agreement, releasing more water than what was legally allowed to maintain necessary water levels.

This crisis is not an isolated incident. Rather, it illuminates the two biggest ongoing threats to Lake Victoria: climate change and increasing over-releases of water from the lake for hydropower. Climate change is predicted to cause increasing drought and less predictable rainfall patterns in this region, which is significant because 80% of Lake Victoria’s recharge comes from precipitation. Since the 2005 drought, the amount of hydropower along the Victoria Nile has doubled with the construction of the Bujagali and Isimbia power stations, with 250MW and 183MW capacities, respectively.

Damming the Nile River through Uganda alters the natural flows of the river, threatening those who rely on the river for their livelihoods (such as ecotourism). In addition, these dams over-release water from Lake Victoria, which affects anyone who uses Lake Victoria’s water, as Jinja’s outlet at Owens Dam is the only outlet of the entire lake.

To protect its water source, Jinja, through NWSC’s leadership, needs to fight for the conservation of Lake Victoria. Although NWSC should also consider ways to supplement its main source – such as rainwater harvesting – ultimately, Lake Victoria is likely to provide the vast majority of the region’s water supply in the foreseeable future.  Further, secondary cities in the Lake Victoria region are projected to grow rapidly in the coming decades, and Jinja and other nearby cities are likely to require even more water from Lake Victoria moving forward.

NWSC should seek institutional reforms to limit the release of water from Lake Victoria for hydropower production. The Ministry of Water (MWE), which oversees NWSC, sets regulatory policy and oversees implementation of those policies. At a minimum, it should update the 1954 Water Release Policy and identify a new water-level standard for Lake Victoria. To do so, it will have to coordinate with Uganda’s Electricity Transmissions Company, and fight against hydropower development interests of the Ugandan government and international interests like the Exim Bank of China and the African Development Bank, which has invested in the newest Victoria Nile dam.  

The MWE should seek support from a broader coalition of regional partners that depend on the overall health of Lake Victoria. These regional partners could include the USAID, the Lake Victoria Region Local Authorities and Counties Cooperative (LRVAC) and the World Bank, plus international water-focused NGOs like Living Rivers.

There is also a broader question about Uganda’s reliance on hydropower as an enduring energy asset. Over 80% of Ugandans are not connected to the electricity grid, and much of the hydropower that is generated gets exported to neighboring countries. Additionally, Uganda has extensive renewable energy resources, with an estimated potential of about 5,300 MW. Renewable resources remain largely untapped, but solar power has received increased attention from investors as well as geothermal energy. Uganda’s Energy Authority should create a national strategy that prioritizes renewable energy over large-scale hydropower, which would better serve its people without compromising their drinking water source.

If Uganda can control the water releases for its existing hydropower capacity needs, while diversifying its energy supply through renewable energy, it can help protect the extremely important drinking water source from Lake Victoria for decades to come.