Case study : Rwanda
The issue ...
In Rwanda , 25% of the population can't still have access to safe
drinking water source, while 26% of the population have no access to
improved sanitation facilities. Rural areas are more affected by
these problems.
Few Rwandans have access to running water in their
homes. Most of the time, you can find community water points where
they are charged a nominal user fee for the water according to
either container size or monthly consumption.
Piped
water systems are very important in Rwanda rural areas. We can find
847 piped rural water systems and 19, 300 protected springs. Piped
water are pumped systems. The service in rural areas is provided by
community-based organizations, private operators which have contracts
with district government and by privately owned systems.
The
main problem in these areas is the distance to a water source which
provokes an important burden on women and girls who are the first
water carriers for their families. This fact has an impact on women's
and girls' lives, their economic productivity and their access to
education. Moreover, children are very impacted by the lack of
hygiene and by unsafe water and poor sanitations that can create ill
effects like Diarrhoea which is on the top three killers of children.
Internal actions
In Rwanda, the
Ministry of Lands, Environment, Forests, Water and Mines is in charge
of determining strategies. It is also in charge of
monitoring drinking water quality and promoting user awareness. The
ministry of infrastructure supports the construction of water supply
systems, latrines, hygiene promotion with the UNICEF's help.
Utilities
Regulatory Agency has been created by law in 2001. This Agency
promotes a responsible economic regulation of electricity, water
sanitation, gas and transport's sector. Its aim in water sanitation
is to regulate in a way that promotes fair competition, sustainable
and efficient use of water resources. It ensures better quality of
services to customers with fair prices and effective protection of
environment.
External actions
The
World Bank supports rural water supply and sanitation through a
series of projects. The most important was the US$72,3 million water
supply 02 Project – 1987-1998 – and the US$ 20 million rural
water and sanitation Project - 2000-2007-. The latter has provided
352,000 people with access to improved water services in December
2006.
In
2005, the European Union signed a contract with the Rwandan
Government for a water project in the Bugesera Region ( Kigali
Rural). This project benefit four district in the eatsern part of Kigali City.
The
African Development Bank has also committed US$22 million to rural
water and sanitation.
Some
associations and NGO are also involved. Within them, we can find
UNICEF which supports the Government of Rwanda to improve access to
water and sanitation as well. Most notably with support from
Government of the Netherlands and communities in Rwanda, UNICEF has
helped to provide first time access to water and sanitation to half
a million people in 2013. UNICEF also supports policy development and
capacity building for water and sanitation.
We can also see through an article of East African Business Week that some foreign cooperations are supporting Rwandan targets. The Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA), for instance, wants to '' construct new water supply systems and rehabilitate existing ones for improving access to safe drinking water'' according to Takahiro Moriya, the JICA Chief Representative.
I have found this video interesting. It is a simple and good summary of the situation in some rural part of Rwanda, the issues and progress which have been made.
