Out of 77 valley dams found in Rwanda, 20 or 25 per cent are not operating, the Rwanda Water Resources Board has reported.
Valley dams are used for livestock water consumption and most of them are located in the eastern part of the country.
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They are constructed in the valley to collect runoff. Such dams were mainly constructed in the drier districts of Eastern Province namely Nyagatare, Gatsibo, and Kayonza.
However, some of them are not serving the purpose of storing water for livestock. The main problems faced by existing valley dams include lack of regular maintenance and poor management, invasion of papyrus and water hyacinth, overtopping, destruction caused by cattle, and dry spells.
"This calls for rehabilitation and training of users for proper maintenance. Valley dams need to be properly managed and rehabilitated,” the water storage status report for 2022/23 recommended.
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A big number of valley dams is observed in Nyagatare District with 42, followed by Kayonza with 28 while a low number is observed in Gatsibo with 12.
While 20 valley dams are not operating, the report shows that 49 still are, and the coordinates of the remaining 8 were not found during the assessment.
All valley dams in Gatsibo District are operating whereas Nyagatare District has the highest number of dams that are not functioning.
The water resources board added that some of the operating ones also need quick maintenance.
According to Stephen Sebudandi, the President of Kayonza Dairy Farmers cooperatives, there is a need to increase the use of boreholes and solar power to pump water to create more dams to supply water to livestock.
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He expressed the need saying that there are two valley dams that are not operating in the area where he is rearing cattle.
"We have hired a car that transports water to our area to feed our cattle. This is the time we need more water supply for our livestock as the government enforces zero-grazing. Borehole technology and solar power can help as a sustainable solution to help extract water for the livestock,” he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources has ordered 70 per cent of pastureland in the districts of Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza, and Kirehe, in Eastern Province, to be put under the cultivation of crops that provide cow fodder, while 30 per cent is set aside for cow sheds in a bid to enforce the zero-grazing system and increase milk production.
Gahiga Gashumba, a livestock farmer in Nyagatare District, said, "We need enough water in the pastures, which means increasing water supply infrastructure.”
By press time, the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Board had not yet responded to The New Times’ questions on the way forward about the idle valley dams.
The total storage capacity of valley dams in Rwanda is equivalent to 11,071,370 cubic metres out of 225,246,491,699 cubic metres of total storage from different sources in the country.
Natural storage (lakes) makes up 99.96 per cent of the total storage while artificial storage (water ponds, valley dams, and dams) makes up 0.04 per cent.