Vision

The Vision for the water and environment sector is best articulated by the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) vision and mission statements which state the vision as: Sound management and sustainable utilisation of water and environment resources for the betterment of the population of Uganda; and the Mission as: To promote and ensure the rational and sustainable utilisation, development and effective management of water and environment resources for socio-economic development of the country.

Ministry Objectives

i) Provision of sustainable safe water supply and sanitation facilities, including hygienic use in rural areas.

ii) Provision and effective use of water for production (Agricultural crop production irrigation, livestock, aquaculture and rural industries)

iii) Promotion of viable urban water supply and sewerage/sanitation systems for domestic , industrial and commercial uses

iv) Promote Integrated and sustainable water resources management

v) Promote sound and sustainable management of environment for optimum social and economic benefits for the present and future generation.

vi) Provision of reliable weather and climate information

vii) Ensure sustainable forest and wetland resource management

Ministerial Policy Statement

Macro structure for Ministry of Water and Environment

• Directorate of Water Development
• Directorate of Water Resouces Managment

• Directorate of Environment Affairs

Management and support services

a) Finance and Administration (F&A) department, whose range of services covers financial management, accounting, administration and personnel, supplies and facilities management

b) Planning and Quality Assurance (PQA) department, whose functions include sectoral policy planning, monitoring and evaluation, quality standards assurance, and human resources development,

c) Procurement and Disposal Unit (PDU) responsible for coordinating, monitoring and managing all procurement and disposal activities in the Ministry

The overall policy of Government regarding water and sanitation is: "Integrated and sustainable management, development and use of Water Resources in Uganda for the present and future generations"

Within this policy, the sector activities are planned and implemented in order:

• To ensure that the water resources of Uganda are equitably shared and wisely used for sustainable socio-economic development
• To contribute to economic development through provision of affordable and sustainable water and sanitation services (infrastructural development), a prerequisite for urban, industrial and commercial development.
• To improve health through provision of safe water supply and sanitation services, considering that water-related and faecal-oral diseases are a dominant part of the disease burden in Uganda.
• To save resources (time, energy and money) that would be involved/expended in collecting water and dealing with unsafe water-induced ill health.
• To this end, in the medium to the long-term planning horizon, the following goals and targets have been set as drivers for the above policy:
• "To promote coordinated, integrated and sustainable water resources management to ensure conservation of water resources and provision of water for all social and economic activities"
• "Sustainable safe water supply and sanitation facilities to 77% of the rural population and 100% of the urban population by the year 2015, based on management responsibility and ownership by the users, with an 80%-90% effective use and functionality of facilities".
• "To promote development of water supply for agricultural production in order to modernize agriculture and mitigate effects of climatic variations on rain-fed agriculture"

For the Environment and Natural Resources, the overall policy is to have a "Sustainable Productive Natural Resources Base and a Healthy Environment for Improved Livelihoods, Poverty Eradication and Economic Growth"

• To support implementation, sub-sector specific policy objectives have been defined to guide implementation and these are:
• To have a sufficiently forested, ecologically stable and prosperous Uganda - the Uganda Forest policy (2001);
• Uganda's Wetlands managed and used more wisely in ways conducive to conserving the environment and its biodiversity as well as optimizing benefits to the people around the wetlands – Wetlands Policy (1994)
• Uganda's population benefiting from maximum utilization of timely and accurate weather and climate information for sustainable socio-economic development – Meteorology Sub-sector Investment Plan (2006),
• A sustainable socio-economic development which maintains or enhances environmental quality and resource productivity on a long-term basis so as to meet the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs – the National Environment Management Policy (1994).