The issue of sewage management in and around Kigali City is still hanging in balance after building owners failed to beat a deadline of December 31, 2007.

Kigali City Council (KCC) had given city building owners up to the end of December to have put in place waste management measures. But now the Council has backtracked and instead opted for a central treatment plant to cater for the entire city sewage.

Only 39 out of 150 building owners managed to honour the directive while the rest claimed lack of capacity to build such systems.

But although KCC have now turned their attention to a central treatment centre, the national environmental watchdog doubts its feasibility without a City Master Plan.
Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) Director General, Dr Rose Mukankomeje, said nothing could be achieved without a plan to guide the public on how and where to dispose of sewage.

"Only the City Master Plan can lay ground to have a lasting solution for the sewage problem,” Mukankomeje said this week.

Sources in KCC revealed that the first blueprints of the master plan will be unveiled at the end of January.

The City Master Plan gives a detailed account of the design and formation of roads and structures.

KCC argues that the absence of a master plan is no reason for people to poison the environment and that concerned parties should be considerate.

A KCC inspector, Reuben Ahimbisibwe, said that they were still looking for an appropriate location to build the central treatment plant where building owners would dispose waste for a fee.

"I hope the planned plant will have been constructed before the year runs out,” Ahimbisibwe said this week.
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