In September 2026, the Katosi water treatment plant on Lake Victoria was producing about 52% of the 160 million liters a day it was built to deliver to Greater Kampala. The network that should carry its water into the city could not yet take the rest.
The network is the bottleneck
National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) is closing the gap through Package 2B, a contract worth about EUR 92.4 million held by Sogea Satom and financed mainly by the French Development Agency, with the EU, the European Investment Bank and KfW. The works cover about 70 km of transmission mains, three reservoirs, booster stations at Kungu and Kabulengwa and an upgrade of the Kampala Water SCADA control system. Construction began in February 2025 and was about 35% complete in September 2026.
What arrives first
The first visible change should be the 7.7 km Namugongo–Kasangati bulk line, due from December 2026. All Package 2B components are scheduled for 2027. Beyond that, the French Development Agency approved further financing in December 2025 to add 80,000 m3 a day at Katosi and 50 km of network, though the amount has not been published.
Why it matters
Kampala is where NWSC's losses are highest. Non-revenue water in the Kampala Water area was 39.8% in FY 2023/24, against 33.9% for the utility as a whole. New treated water pushed into a leaking network does not all reach paying customers, which is why the Package 2B scope pairs new mains with control systems.
How Katosi fits NWSC's wider move toward network control, how the utility plans to fund its UGX 8.2 trillion 2025–2030 plan, and which programs are paused for lack of money are covered in the full report. The full report, Water Utility of the Future: National Water and Sewerage Corporation, is available for USD 499. For a free overview, read the National Water and Sewerage Corporation Utility Snapshot.