Rwandans have been urged to embrace rain water harvesting and preservation to help supplement other water sources.

Dr Vincent Biruta, the Minister for Natural Resources, made the appeal while launching Water Week in Kigali on Monday.

The campaign that runs until March 20, features various activities covering water awareness and sustainable development, safe drinking water, sanitation, and reduction of water-related disasters, among others.

"Water is critical for socio-economic development, healthy ecosystems and human survival. We need to find ways of preserving it so that we can use it for agriculture and electricity production, among others,” Dr Biruta said.

He reaffirmed government’s commitment to achieving 100 per cent access to safe water and sanitation by 2017. Access to safe water in the country is currently at 74.2 per cent.

Rwanda is said to be one of the African countries that use water at a very low scale. Statistics show that a Rwandan uses an average of 670 cubic meters annually as opposed to 4,000 cubic meters for citizens in some African countries.

"We need to increase access to water and usage to at least 1,000 cubic meters annually by putting in place water tanks in every household. We are lucky different stakeholders are coming on board to help us achieve this,” Biruta added.

The Water Week will be concluded on World Water Day on March 20 in Rulindo District.

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