In Kigali, managing sewage remains one of the biggest challenges that city dwellers are faced with on a daily basis. Though there is a system of collection and transportation of solid wastes, there is no waste segregation system and the management of dumping sites is still a serious problem.Kigali has neither a central treatment facility for sewage nor a system of sewers. There has never been any strict sanitation policy in the past. However recently, city authorities passed a bylaw ordering all newly constructed houses to have water flush toilets.In this, hotels, schools and multiple-storied buildings have to create their own sewerage systems.Bruno Rangira, the Director of Communication at Kigali City Council, says that the council is now discouraging investors from sinking pit latrines because they are not easy to maintain.“Developers have been asked to have flushing toilets as pit latrines need to be emptied every year, this is not a sustainable way to land use in the city”, Rangira told The New Times.Rangira says that currently, every large complex is supposed to have an internal sewage system, which can be costly, however once the central sewage system is constructed, all buildings will be connected to it and that will be more cost effective as developers would not be required to put up their own facilities.Information from the 2011 environment report by the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA) indicates that sanitation facilities in urban areas do not meet the requisite standards. For instance a report by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), indicates that in 2006, only 5.4 per cent of urban households had flush toilets and that individuals decide on what systems to use based on their financial abilities. However according to city council there has been an increase in the construction of flush water toilets since then though not specific statics are shown.“House owners employ private companies to do the dislodging for a fee. Some septic tanks are not accessible by the dislodging vehicles so manual methods are employed. The sludge in urban areas is not appropriately treated and is usually disposed off in an unhygienic way in a dumpsite,” the REMA report continues.Now the City wants sewage from large establishments like schools, hotels, prisons and hospitals to be managed using small sewage disposals. Hotels now are making use of their sewage and they are not required to dislodge. The managing director, Kigali Serena Hotel, Charles Mui says they have a system where bacteria are introduced in the sewage turning it into water.“We later use this water for watering our gardens and other uses where it deems fit,” Mui explains. He adds that this kind of sewage management is far affordable than dislodging of septic tanks.Septic tank systems with soak pits is the most used technology by the urban-rich, while those who cannot afford them resort to the traditional deep pit-latrines despite their impact on ground water resource especially in an urban environment. Almost all the septic tanks are emptied and dislodged separately when full. .Ken Luxury is one of the companies involved in water waste management which has also come up with modern technology that is cost effective to their clients. Orit Manor, the company’s managing director says the company provides “Jetinc” sewage treatment plants for domestic and commercial settings, onsite waste water treatment systems, with the most effective modular concrete tanks, which makes JET the total pollution control for any facility built beyond sewer lines.“Plants treat the wastewater with special microscopic living organisms that transform wastewater into a clear odourless liquid, recommended for environmentally safe discharge & great for irrigation,” Manor explains to The New Times.“This kind of technology reduces on the cost of dislodging septic tanks especially as there is lack of dumping sites” she quotes.The REMA report explains that the emerging practice is to encourage real estate developers to provide central sewerage systems for their housing units. An example of this application can be seen in two estates in Kigali: Vision 2020 at Gaculiro in Gasabo District with a waste treatment plant and Nyarutarama Estate at Nyarutarama in the same district with stabilization ponds. Most of those new central systems are mechanical and might become a source of problems in the future if a sustainable solution is not found.The urgently needed sewage plant will be located in Giti cyinyoni in Nyarugenge District, and it is expected to address the problem the sewerage system as many structures continue to sprout in and around the city.
