Extension activities as well as establishment of the new Nzove Water Treatment Plant in Nyarugenge District will be complete by July, officials have said.

Officials from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC) said this after conducting an assessment tour of the works, last Friday.

The State Minister for Infrastructure, Germaine Kamayirese, said the objective to provide sufficient and sustainable water supply to the residents of Kigali city and surrounding areas of shared water network will be achieved once all the activities are done.

"All the activities to increase production capacity for both Nzove I and II will be completed before the end of July, and we hope that after the completion we will be able to address water shortages and extend water to all city residents,” she told journalists at Nzove site.

Both the two water treatment plants are located in Kanyinya Sector, Nyarugenge District. Phase one of Nzove II plant was commissioned in March last year with the capacity to produce 25,000 cubic metres of water per day, while the second phase is expected to be commissioned in July and it will add 55,000 cubic metres per day, giving the city a total capacity of 145,000 cubic metres of water daily.

"The progress for phase two works is currently at 80 per cent and should completely cover demand for Kigali. The second phase involves upgrading production capacity of the existing 25,000 cubic metres per day to 40,000 cubic metres per day and construction of a new treatment plant with initial capacity of 40,000 cubic metres per day with upgradable capacity of 65,000 cubic metres per day when demand increases in future,” said James Sano, the chief executive of WASAC.

Construction process is still hampered by some of the challenges like customs clearance of materials and expropriation delays, but officials say they are looking to address them within the process.

Addressing underlying issues

The latest Auditor General’s report indicates that WASAC is among institutions that failed to present financial statements of 2016.

In the previous year, the report showed that there was about 42 per cent of unbilled water and that Nzove plant was producing below its installed capacity, significantly impacting on water shortages.

"Surprisingly, WASAC refused to present their financial statements until February this year when we had finished making the report. This is why I say if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” Obadiah Biraro, the auditor-general, told Parliament while presenting the report last week.

Moreover, the AG report cites unutilised items worth Rwf1.1 billion, that were obsolete, dormant or slow moving at WASAC. Two compact water treatment plants of 100 cubic meters per hour capacity each, worth Rwf1.7 billion, installed at Cyondo in Nyagatare District, were also idle for one year, it adds.

However, Sano said they worked well with the Auditor-General, adding that the Rwf1.1 billion was the strategic stock.

"You can’t have zero stock; it’s not possible because anytime anything can happen. This is the strategic stock, and it’s actually an improvement in the efficiency of our company since we used to have Rwf10 billion of stock,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sano said more efforts are underway to address some of the underlying challenges, including the establishment of forward infrastructure.

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