[In 2008], over six million Rwandans – more than 73 percent of the country’s population were estimated to have access to safe drinking water, compared to 71 percent in the previous year. This is revealed in a joint Ministry of Infrastructure (Mininfra)-African Development Bank (AfDB) report, titled: “Summary Report on Water and Sanitation Joint Sector Review (Fiscal Year 2008).” The three-page document [...] also points out that 4.3 million – 45 percent – Rwandans have access to hygienic sanitation facilities.
“The impressive coverage rates for WATSAN (water and sanitation) are attributed to rehabilitation and construction of new infrastructure,” states a portion of the report. Some of thee infrastructure investments mentioned include construction of 651 kilometres of new water supply systems, 70 boreholes, 53 rain water harvesting tanks and 92 public latrines. The report noted that the country is well on its way to realise its ambitious target – 100 percent coverage of water supply and sanitation called for by Vision 2020.
Also noted is the impact of the Nyabarongo water project, a project to reinforce potable water supply in Kigali city and then projected to conclude by July 2009.
“In 2008, approximately 546,070 additional people had access to safe drinking water while 33,395 had improved access to sanitation.”
Challenges
[To cope with the] country’s alarming population growth [11.3 million people by the year 2015], Rwanda will need to [invest] a minimum of about USD 32-35 million annually for the rehabilitation and construction of new water and sanitation infrastructure. The Mininfra-AfDB report also notes that [...] there is a need to separate sanitation from water supply, with the establishment of a separate sub-programme and a budget.
Human resource challenges and, environment degradation are also noted as a threat to the water and sanitation sub-sector.
Source: James Karuhanga, The New Times / allAfrica.com, 08 Jun 2009
