After 17 years of lying idle, a key water project in northern Uganda has come back to life. The government has fully restored Leye Dam in Kole District, marking a major boost for irrigation, fishing and other production activities that had stalled for nearly two decades.
Leye Dam, located in Leye Village, Telela Parish in Ayer Sub-county, was constructed around 2006 by the Ministry of Water and Environment with World Bank funding. The Shs4 billion multipurpose facility was expected to transform the area by supporting irrigation, aquaculture, and other economic ventures. But by 2016, the dam had become heavily infested with aquatic weeds, making it unusable.
Eng Ronald Kato Kayizzi, the Assistant Commissioner for Water for Production, said the infestation crippled all activities that the dam was built to support.
‘Leye Dam became impossible for people to utilise it for the intended purpose. And the investors and communities that had come in with the fish cages could no longer do business. But we also think that the aquatic weed was attributed to people who brought in infested fishing nets from other water bodies,’ he said during a visit to the site on Wednesday, November 26, 2025.
He said government intervened to rehabilitate the dam and restore its functions. ‘It has been restored, and the ministry, through the department of Water for Production and our regional office, is going to ensure that we undertake micro-scale irrigation by the beneficiaries who are around the water body,’ he added.
The rehabilitated dam was officially commissioned on Wednesday, November 26.
Mr Joe Okello, chairperson of the water user committee, praised the contractor who cleared the weeds, saying the dam is ‘now back in action’ and providing the much-needed water for production.
Kole LC5 chairperson Moses Andrew Awany described the restoration as a milestone, especially at a time when the country is struggling with the effects of climate change and its reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
The Ministry of Water and Environment has intensified efforts to address water management challenges, including removing water hyacinth and other invasive weeds choking Uganda’s water bodies.
According to Kole Resident District Commissioner Jillian Akullo, the successful restoration demonstrates the NRM government’s commitment to strengthening water infrastructure and promoting sustainable water management.
Sustainability plan
As part of the sustainability strategy, beneficiary communities will be encouraged to take up apiary and ventures such as duck rearing, with ducks helping to control aquatic weeds biologically.
The district has also set up a technical support team comprising the production, community services and water departments to develop an operation and management plan focusing on watershed protection.
‘We have planted a number of trees, and as part of the Roots campaign, the Ministry of Water and Environment has a plan to plant the number of trees equivalent to Uganda’s population every year,’ Eng Kato said.
‘So, we are encouraging everyone in your homestead. to plant a tree, where there is a possibility to plant as many as a hundred.’
Communities are also being encouraged to conserve wetlands and other ecosystems. Eng Kato said those who had encroached on low-lying catchment areas have been persuaded to move and will be supported to adopt alternative livelihoods.
‘So, we are going to ensure that they get alternative livelihoods to what they have been doing. Instead of rice, we are moving them to irrigation of high-value crops,’ he said.