Loses resulting from flooding that a section of businesses in Kigali City have been counting could soon be lessened following a new $12 million investment that could soon start to rehabilitate five wetlands that have capacity to mitigate floods in the capital.

For a couple of years, city dwellers have been facing crisis since only 24 per cent of Kigali City’s original wetlands have survived.

More wetlands to be rehabilitated include Gikondo, Rwampara, Rugenge-Rwintare, Nyabugogo and Kibumba.

Doing Business has compiled and detailed the environment and economic benefits that could arise from rehabilitating each of the five wetlands.

Gikondo

For several years, Gikondo Wetland has been serving as home to industries, warehouses, garages, and was critically degraded since its establishment as industrial park in 1960s.

Gikondo Wetland is located in three districts, Gasabo, Nyarugenge and Kicukiro.

Its degradation has undermined the wetlands’ potential to provide water quality and flood mitigation functions.

The Gikondo Wetland has been earmarked as the first site for wetland rehabilitation and will see some 100 hectares of previously industrial land rehabilitated to a wetland system that helps to regulate floods, improve water quality whilst also providing an important green space in the City for recreation and tourism according to Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA).

According to researchers Théophile Mutaganda, Jean Pierre Bizimana from Faculty of Environment Studies, University of Lay Adventist of Kigali (UNILAK) , Gikondo wetland area has reduced from 32.03 per cent (1987) up to 25.70 per cent (2010) indicating its degradation.

From 2010 to 2019, the area of wetland has increased.

Despite this increase, the wetland area has not recovered to the 1987 extent.

There is a plan to convert the wetland to Gikondo Lake Park for nature-based tourism attraction site in Kigali city.

The park will feature indigenous plantation and allows passive recreation use.

In addition, the rehabilitation of this wetland is considering other functions such as removal and control of pollutants, flood reduction, groundwater recharge, wildlife habitat, and other services as previous studies have shown higher health risks resulting from heavy metal concentration in soil and water.

To remove pollutants, The researchers have suggested to establish water filtration plants where incoming water and sediments are treated before entering in wetland and develop storm water facilities with water quality criteria around Gikondo wetland.

To attenuate floods, they suggest adopting storm water treatment practices, dikes and levees construction, and advanced floodplain construction design around and in the wetland.

For Groundwater recharge and discharge, they suggest creating artificial lakes within wetland boundaries.

To become wildlife habitat, they say wetland restoration, and stocking of new plant and animal species could improve the biodiversity in wetland.

It is planned that technical assistance will also be provided to identify potential impact-driven, innovative financing options for private sector engagement around environmental sustainability in the wetland sites under a new project.

Green investment planning would, for example, include recommendations such as provision of wetland space for small and medium entrepreneurs to develop tourism development and recreational purposes, and support efforts to prevent water contamination and degradation in the future.

Rwampara

The study dubbed " Spatio-temporal Analysis of Urban Growth and Its Effects on Wetlands in Rwanda: The Case of Rwampara Wetland in the City of Kigali,” by Gaspard Rwanyiziri , Gaspard Rwanyiziri is the Director of the Centre for Geographic. Information Systems and Remote Sensing (CGIS) of University of Rwanda and other six researchers that was published in 2020 shows that over the past four decades, urban growth in Kigali City has rapidly increased at the expense of resource degradation in Rwampara wetland.

Specifically, there has been an increase of about 77 per cent of the built-up area over the 31 years (1987-2018) which has led to the decrease of the wetland surface area from 24 hectares in 1987 to only 7.7 hectares in 2018.

The total area of 16.3 ha has been lost to other land uses/cover types.

In addition, other non-built-up cover has known a great loss of 112.7 ha during that period of time.

The degradation of the wetland is attributed to human activities such as agriculture and waste dumping mostly practiced in and around the area.

The results revealed that a high population growth rate was mainly responsible for urban growth and degradation of wetland resources in the area under investigation.

Like other wetlands in Kigali City, Rwampara wetland is facing the above-mentioned threats in addition to having its water drained to Nyabugogo River, one of the main water sources in the city.

According to the researchers, the degradation of Rwampara wetland constitutes an alarming environmental problem that has not been given due attention when it comes to addressing issues related to water and wetlands management in Kigali City.

In Kigali city, Rwampara is one of the areas that have been experiencing extreme flash flood events and it has been noted that this is mainly due to lack of storm water management strategies and lack of infrastructures to accommodate peak runoff accumulation from upstream.

Studies show that has been decreased water supply to the City as Rwampara wetland has previously been recognized as one of the key sources of water to the City of Kigali.

Rugenge-Rwintare Wetland System

Rugenge wetland and Kagina River are located in Kicukiro sector of Kicukiro District and connect to Gikondo, Rwintare and Nyabugogo wetlands which filter the water that flows into Nyabugogo River.

According to a study by Alexis, Nizeyimana a researcher in environmental and development studies published in March, 2021, the sections of the River Nyabugogo system have been found to be high in heavy metals, such as lead and chromium, and nutrients from organic material and soil runoff.

Polluted water exposes households to the risk of contracting diarrheal and other water-borne diseases, especially since 30.2 per cent of dweller drink this water without any prior treatment.

The prevalence of diarrheal disease in children in urban areas was at 9.8 per cent according to previous studies.

Nyabugogo Wetland

For years, a group of garages in Gatsata Sector, Gasabo District, known as the ‘Gatsata Garages’ were responsible for hazardous oils and heavy metals directly entering the Nyabugogo wetland because they lacked the proper infrastructure for waste disposal.

Furthermore, most of the garage operators did not have toilets, making them dangerous to the natural environment and the health of members of the cooperatives operating in the neighborhood.

Businesses suffer a lot during flooding events.

The garages’ negative impacts on the wetland were so visually striking that the government moved quickly to relocate them to higher ground.

The Nyabugogo Swamp feeds into the Nyabarongo.

River and is major outlet of the City of Kigali and it receives all the wastewater from City of Kigali.

Kibumba Wetland

Kibumba wetland is linked to Kibumba stream in Kigali and has an elevation of 1,421 metres.

Kibumba is situated nearby to Ruganwa river in Muhima sector of Nyarugenge district.

The Kibumba wetland is less heavily developed but receives elevated flows and poor water quality from the highly urbanized upstream catchment.

Several key flooding hotspots are linked with these wetlands, affecting business and transportation.

Researchers have said that Rehabilitation therefore provides an opportunity to attenuate floods while also addressing water quality, enhancing ecological functions and socioeconomic uses.