Water and Sanitation Institutions Situational Analysis and Way Forward Proposal for Kigali City, Rwanda

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to have a more comprehensive and understanding of the water sector, from the institutional set up of water supply and sanitation sector, impact of the separate water supply and sanitation management system and consequently propose some measures in order to alleviate the situation.
Desk studies were reviewed as methodology, field survey and water managers’ consultation; questionnaires were used and interviews were conducted especially with private and government institutions leaders, local leaders and communities and lastly target group meeting and discussions within the sector were conducted especially in the Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) conference.
The study found out that, without considering 30% unaccounted for water, water supply in Kigali is at 69% with 22 l per capita per day and 29% at 90 l per capita per day. This study also found out that, only 0.4% of Kigali population use safe sewer systems, 50% use soak pits and 43.5% use latrines which are rarely emptied hence the situation results into discharging waste into the rainwater channels and consequently contaminating the groundwater together with the rivers. Therefore, 89.3% of the population experiences water borne diseases and 69.5% of morbidity in the country are due to Water Borne Diseases (WBD).
From the above results, the study concluded that the management system of water sector is weak. Hence a National Institute of Water and Sanitation Management, free from political influence, is highly proposed. The powers of institutions of policy formulation, regulation, ownership, management oversight, and service provision should be separated in order to avoid the poacher-gamekeeper which is generally the source of the problem of course without ignoring the high population with few and old infrastructures.