Ministry of Water and Environment Benchmarks at NHLDS to Strengthen Water Testing Capacity
30th/10/2025: Kampala.
The Ministry of Water and Environment has embarked on plans to establish a state-of-the-art water testing laboratory in Entebbe and to guide this process, a technical team led by Assistant Commissioner for Environmental Laboratories, Mr. Simon Etimu, visited the National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services (NHLDS) for a benchmarking exercise.
The team, which included Assistant Commissioner for Procurement, Mr. Mike Duncan Tumwikirize, and officials from the Ministry of Water engineering department, was received by Dr. Isaac Ssewanyana, the Laboratory Director at NHLDS, together with the Wastewater Surveillance Team at the Central Emergency Response and Surveillance Laboratory (CERSL) in Wandegeya.
The visit focused on understanding NHLDS’s advanced laboratory infrastructure and waste management systems, key components that will inform the design and setup of the new water testing laboratory.
“We had initially conceptualized the idea of a water testing laboratory, but under the One Health Initiative, we realized we needed to integrate critical human health aspects into the design. We brought our procurement and engineering teams here to see firsthand how a modern laboratory operates, learn from best practices, and explore areas of technical collaboration. We have benchmarked in South Africa, and now we are doing the same here at home,” Mr, Etimu stated.
Dr. Ssewanyana commended the Ministry’s collaborative approach and reaffirmed NHLDS’s commitment to supporting the initiative.
“We are also planning to expand our own laboratory capacity. Your insights as engineers are invaluable to us. By learning from each other, we can both enhance our facilities and avoid common design and operational gaps to ensure that we have a healthy population,” Dr. Isaac Ssewanyana.
The Ministry of Water and Environment has maintained a strong partnership with the NHLDS under the One Health Initiative, particularly through wastewater surveillance (WES) a system used to detect pathogens, monitor disease trends, and inform public health responses.
Looking ahead, integrating wastewater and environmental surveillance into mass gatherings, abattoirs, and markets will further strengthen Uganda’s readiness to respond to zoonotic and enteric disease threats.
“As public health challenges evolve, wastewater surveillance remains central to outbreak control, informed decision-making, and protecting national health,” Dr. Ssewanyana emphasized.
Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance (WES) is a public health monitoring system that detects pathogens and chemical indicators in community wastewater before diseases are clinically reported.
In Uganda, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Water and Environment implement WES under the One Health Initiative by analysing samples from sewage and other environmental sources, WES provides early warnings of outbreaks, tracks infection trends, and guides targeted health interventions.
WES has become a cornerstone of the One Health approach, linking environmental data with human and animal health surveillance. The system has successfully supported early detection of diseases like Ebola, COVID-19, and cholera, and continues to inform national strategies for disease prevention, antimicrobial resistance tracking, and emergency response.
