Water Resource Accounts for Uganda: Use and Policy Relevancy

The increasing variability in the climatic pattern and its adverse effects on the Ugandan economy has become a major development challenge. For example, a key but climate sensitive sector like agriculture is increasingly experiencing severe disruptions as a result of its reliance on rainfall which has increasingly become unpredictable. Recent studies indicate a seemingly decreasing trend in the number of rainy days during the months which are crucial for crop growth. This trend is severely disrupting agricultural activity across the country. Since water is a vital input in many economic activities, we need to clearly understand the available supply of water resources and the level of utilization by the different sectors of the economy. This is with the view to establishing whether or not, there is room for increased utilization; within the framework of Integrated Water Resources Management. It is the objective to the study to provide this understanding through a water resource accounting framework. However, no developed water resource accounts exist for the Ugandan economy. Hence the task of the study was to develop the water resource accounts for Uganda. The results show evidence of under utilization of the available water resources. The under utilization is prevalent across all productive sectors of the economy and is likely to constrain the scope for productivity improvements, economic growth and other development outcomes.