Today is World Habitat Day. The day, which falls on the first Monday of October, serves as an opportunity to draw attention to the state of cities and towns and recommit to sustainable urbanisation that leaves no one behind.

This year, the day will be observed under the theme, "Frontier Technologies as an innovative tool to transform waste into wealth”. This is a theme that particularly resonates with Rwanda’s development ambition, with the country seeking to increasingly leverage technology and innovation to address some of the traditional and emerging challenges that undermine sustainable urbanisation and adequate shelter.

Yet there are issues that continue to dog the country’s sustainable urbanisation efforts, such as the challenges associated with management of solid waste and lack of a central sewerage system for major cities, especially the City of Kigali. There are also challenges related to residents who continue to live in disaster-prone areas, while there are also limited public green spaces in urban centres that are key to healthy urban living.

Generally, there is a consensus on the challenges that affect our cities and towns, as well as what needs to be done to address them.

Nonetheless, sometimes those in charge don’t show the necessary urgency to reverse the trend. For instance, it’s been years since authorities set out the fix the issue of lack of a central sewerage system in the City of Kigali – a problem that constitutes a ticking time bomb – but the effort remains shrouded in bureaucracy and red tape. 

As the country joins the rest of the world to mark Habitat Day, it’s critical that authorities approach these challenges with a sense of urgency, in the same way, the Government has treated other equally important endeavours like healthcare, security and environmental protection.