Reports say the water supply to one of Uganda’s largest prisons, Luzira prison, has been cut because it failed to pay its water bill.
Located in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, the maximum-security prison houses over 8,000 male and female inmates, including 2,600 staff.
“On August 13, 2024, the National Water and Sewerage Corporation disconnected water services to the Luzira prisons complex due to an outstanding water bill,” Ugandan prisons service spokesman Frank Baine said in a statement on Monday.
He said the service owed about $4.8 million.
“The situation is a matter of national concern,” Baine said.
The Ministries of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and the National Water and Sewerage Corporation are in talks to resolve the crisis.
Baine urged inmates and prison staff to remain calm as the facility relies on water tanks.
Built by the British in the 1920s, the run-down complex has been the subject of ongoing discussions about moving out of the capital.
This isn’t the first time the prison and its inmates have faced a water shortage. In 2017, local reports revealed that Luzira was also left without water due to unpaid bills.