“Dear customers, Nyabarongo water has become too turbid to be treated. This will affect the water supply in the following areas: Nyarutarama, Kibagabaga, Bumbogo, Gihogere, Rukiri, Ruturusu, Nyagatovu, Nyabisindu, and Bibare. Rwimbogo and Gasaraba will be affected too. Bear with us,” Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC) tweeted. Then the attacks came from all directions from frustrated customers, especially from areas that experience perennial water shortages where some neighborhoods go for weeks without water. Many people are becoming impatient with WASAC and when Mother Nature steps in, things go hair-wire. It is very ironic that during the rainy season – as is the case at the moment – when there is bountiful rainy water, taps in Kigali run dry. The reason is that all kinds of debris are washed into River Nyabarongo that provides most of the drinking water. It becomes too turbid and difficult to treat. Sometimes silt also filtrates in water pipes thereby disrupting the flow. All the above scenarios have been common knowledge to city dwellers; when it rains people know what will follow next and yet they do nothing. All should not be left to WASAC to handle alone, people can play their part. When government officials inform people of the merits of water harvesting, metropolitans wrongly assume the message is meant for rural folk. But if they had played along with the water harvesting advice they would not be paying through the nose for the jerry cans of water daily from the water brokers. So, complaining and not doing something to ease the pain only serves to repeat the whole dry tap episode the next season. editorial@newtimesrwanda.com
