The Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Rwanda Office on Thursday, June 10, signed a technical cooperation agreement that will see them jointly implement a project that is aimed at extending clean water to seven districts of Eastern Province. The five-year project is expected to strengthen the capacity of all stakeholders involved in water management in rural areas, including private operators, local district officers water users’ committees at grassroots level, among others. During the implementation, the district officers will be equipped with skills to adequately plan for water supply projects, according to officials. The project will also support water resources protection through community mobilization, which will help prevent waterborne diseases, and improve nutrition status through water quality improvement. While signing the partnership, WASAC CEO Eng. Alfred Dusenge Byigero said the project is more of a capacity development for water service providers and thanked JICA for the continued commitment to the development of the water sector. “On this specific project, we believe it will significantly contribute to improving water services in Eastern Province as well as rural water services in general. With this great collaboration of all stakeholders in this sector, districts and all development partners are on the right track towards the achievement of the national target of universal access to water by 2024,” said Byigero. Through the project, Byigero is looking forward to strengthening delegated management of all concerned entities through different trainings mainly strengthening the planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of rural water supply systems. It also targets improvement of water quality control and management, private operators’ business management, capacity development through application of technologies and knowledge, record keeping in terms of data management, and mapping of all water supply systems. The project is a continuity of the previous technical cooperation that was implemented between 2015 and 2019, with the purpose of developing the maintenance operations of water infrastructure through the development of technical documents to support the capacity development of for rural water services actors in the four model districts of Kayonza, Rwamagana, Kirehe and Ngoma. Regular operation and maintenance of water schemes; proper planning for their rehabilitation and extension are important for reaching NST1 target of universal access to safe water. Lack of required skills and knowledge for planning operation and repairing, leads to malfunction of public taps, hand pumps, increasing non-revenue water through leakage which hinders safe water access. To fill this gap, JICA-Rwanda pledged, through the project, to deploy Japanese engineers to Rwanda to train WASAC and Districts staff as well private water operators on how they can successfully help the Eastern Province reach water safety targets for its residents and end longstanding water shortage in the region. “There are several components to this project but the most important one is the capacity enhancement for all stakeholders in rural water supply, from WASAC and district staff to private operators and water users’ committees,” said JICA-Rwanda chief representative, Maruo Shin. During the project implementation, JICA will also provide vehicles, operation and maintenance materials and other necessary equipment. A number of Rwandan engineers in water supply will also be sent to Japan for training. The project is expected to cost over $5 million. JICA has been supporting WASAC to strategically reduce non-revenue water, and formulation of water supply masterplan for the City of Kigali. Additionally, there is an ongoing grant aid project for strengthening the principal water transmission pipeline in the City of Kigali to help the population of the City to access the safe drinking water sustainably.
