Kampala — A sanitation project worth 61m euro (about sh152.5b) will start in Kampala district soon.

The state minister for water, Jennifer Namuyangu, said under the three-year project, sewerage treatment ponds would be constructed.

"We are expanding the sewerage system and rehabilitating the old one," she said.

Only 8% of Kampala's population is connected to the system, Namuyangu added.

She said about 38m euros was borrowed from the African Development Bank, adding that the rest of the money would be secured from KFW, a Germany company, the Government and the National Water and Sewerage Corporation.

Namuyangu said two treatment plants would be built in Nakivubo and Kinawataka swamps, adding that another two sewerage tanks would also be constructed in Lubigi swamp and Bwaise to accommodate waste from septic tanks.

The minister on Tuesday informed Parliament of the ministry's plans, while reacting to a statement made by the state minister for animal husbandry, Bright Rwamirama, who was clarifying on the safety of Uganda's milk. Recent media reports said Uganda's milk was contaminated with faeces.

Rwamirama assured the House that the proximity of the milk processing plant in Wankoko to the sewerage ponds did not pose any danger to the milk.

"Milk flows in an enclosed system of stainless steel piping right from the point of reception to the point of packaging," Rwamirama explained.