On 2 September 2026, Uganda's National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) managing director Eng Dr Silver Mugisha toured Package 2B network works in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area, telling the contractor and supervising consultant that the project would end recurring shortages and let the utility evacuate the full output of the Katosi drinking water treatment plant ChimpReports. The €92.4 million programme is being built by Sogea Satom under the ARTELIA–Gauff Association PML Daily.
Key takeaways
- Package 2B is a ~€92.4 million network build for Greater Kampala, financed principally by the French Development Agency with EU, EIB and KfW support ChimpReports.
- Katosi water treatment plant is rated for 160 million litres/day today and up to 240 million litres/day, but is running at roughly 52% of capacity because the trunk network cannot yet carry treated water to consumers ChimpReports.
- The project covers about 70 km of transmission mains, three reservoirs and two booster stations, and is reported at 35% complete with the Kungu booster station around 70% complete PML Daily.
- Contractor Sogea Satom is pursuing sectional handovers; the 7.7 km Namugongo–Kasangati line is targeted for commissioning by December 2026 ChimpReports.
- Full project completion is scheduled for 2027, with Mugisha pledging quarterly inspections and demanding an acceleration plan from the contractor and supervising consultant ChimpReports.
What happened
During a site visit on 2 September 2026, Dr Mugisha framed Package 2B as the missing distribution link that allows NWSC to shift strategy from adding new production to extracting more value from assets already in service ChimpReports. The Katosi drinking water treatment plant came online with 160 million litres per day of nameplate capacity, but is currently producing at roughly 52% of that figure because the existing trunk main cannot evacuate the treated water to customers PML Daily. Dr Mugisha ordered NWSC engineers to begin work on an additional evacuation line so that, as Katosi is ramped toward its 240 million litres/day ultimate capacity, more finished water can leave the site ChimpReports.
The 160 million litres/day that Package 2B is designed to carry, multiplied by the implied peak factor for a 24-hour municipal supply, would, in buyer terms, represent on the order of 160,000 m³/day of finished-water throughput once the trunk main is fully loaded (calculation from the reported figure only). A project of this scale in a city the size of the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area — with Kampala and Wakiso districts recording a combined population above 5.2 million in Uganda's 2024 census, per the report — sits at the upper end of what distribution upgrades typically address (general industry range, not from the sources). Sogea Satom told NWSC it will not wait for a single 2027 hand-over; it is pressing ahead with sectional commissioning so that finished pipework can be put into service as soon as it passes pressure tests PML Daily. The first of those sections is the 7.7 km Namugongo–Bulindo–Nsasa–Mulawa–Kasangati line, scheduled to be commissioned by December 2026 and expected to improve supply across Kira, Buwaate, Bulindo, Mulawa, Kasangati and neighbouring areas ChimpReports.
Dr Mugisha also tied Package 2B to a wider operating goal. Drawing more water from Katosi, he said, would relieve the supply stress currently carried by the older Ggaba water works, and the new assets are being designed to serve Kampala for at least 50 years ChimpReports. NWSC deputy managing director for technical services Eng Johnson Amayo asked the contractor to carry out adequate pressure testing of the new pipeline to guard against leaks and bursts once the network is energised PML Daily.
Specification read
The reported scale, restated in the units a procurement or engineering lead would use, is roughly 160,000 m³/day of finished-water design throughput at the existing Katosi rating, rising toward 240,000 m³/day once the additional evacuation line is built, and about 70 km of new transmission main (calculation from the reported figure only). A scheme that has to evacuate 160,000 m³/day or more from a single surface-water works sits firmly in the large-municipal range (general industry range, not from the sources), and the engineering implications for buyers are at the Municipal end of the supply chain: long-distance ductile-iron or steel trunk mains, surge and pressure-management chambers, large ground-level or elevated storage, and SCADA that has to coordinate multiple reservoirs and booster stations rather than a single feed.
The treatment stage that this project bears on is the post-treatment interface — the storage, pumping, disinfection residuals and trunk-main controls that sit between the works' clearwater tank and the consumer. For a utility planning a comparable Water Purification expansion, the practical levers are: pump-station head and duty-point sizing, reservoir turnover time, and a SCADA upgrade that can run sectional handovers without manual intervention. If your network looks like this one — finished-water flows in the 100,000–240,000 m³/day band, multiple new reservoirs coming online in 2026–2027, booster stations at 55–70% complete, and a phased commissioning schedule — the practical question for procurement is not whether to install more production, but how to specify pressure management, surge protection and a SCADA architecture that lets the contractor hand over pipework section by section without destabilising supply in the zones already in service.
FAQ
What is the headline contract value for Package 2B, and who is paying?
The reported contract value is about €92.4 million, with the French Development Agency (AFD) as principal financier and additional support from the European Union, the European Investment Bank and Germany's KfW ChimpReports.
What is the program timeline, and when will water start reaching the first customers?
Full completion is scheduled for 2027, but the contractor is pursuing sectional handovers; the 7.7 km Namugongo–Kasangati line is targeted for commissioning by December 2026 ChimpReports. About 25 km of the ~70 km of transmission main has been laid since work began in February 2025 PML Daily.
Which contractors and consultants are involved, and how do I benchmark a comparable bid?
Works are being executed by Sogea Satom, with project supervision by the ARTELIA–Gauff Association PML Daily. The project includes three reservoirs (Kanyanya 10 million litres, Kabulengwa 3.89 million litres, Mutungo 1 million litre), two booster stations (Kungu, Kabulengwa) and a Kampala Water SCADA upgrade ChimpReports.