Flooding and landslides in the Rusizi River and Lake Kivu basins could soon be minimised under a $3 million (approximately Rwf4 billion) project to strengthen resilience to climate change.

A river basin is the portion of land drained by a river and its tributaries while a lake basin is a geographic land area draining into a lake.

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The five-year project to prevent landslides and floods in the basins will be implemented by the government of Rwanda and Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS).

The Rusizi River has been facing persistent flooding including the recent one which occurred in January and March on Bikombe hill in Nyakerenzo sector of Rusizi District, obstructing the Rusizi River.

The river which is between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo flows from Lake Kivu into Lake Tanganyika in Burundi.

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The project was launched as Rwanda marked World Environment Day on June 5, 2024.

Beatrice Cyiza, the Director General of Environment and Climate Change in the Ministry of Environment, said that the new project will restore degraded landscape to curb floods and landslides into the river and Lake Kivu.

"The project will help the government in its plan to protect rivers and lakes, plant trees, construct terraces, control soil erosion and other practices. The mobilised resources will restore degraded landscape in Rusizi and Karongi districts. This will reduce degradation of soil that is washed away into rivers and lakes that have environmental and economic importance,” she explained.

More than 745,000 hectares of agricultural land in Rwanda potentially loses its topsoil every year and as result, the country loses more than Rwf800 billion annually due to soil erosion.

The total land at high risk of erosion in Western Province, where the new project will be implemented, is about 261,542 hectares (54 per cent of the total province land).

Karongi and Rusizi districts which will benefit from the project, have 57,187 hectares which is about 72 per cent of the total district land and 18,212 hectares or 20 per cent of the total province land respectively that are at high risk of erosion.

Both the Rusizi River and Lake Kivu that will be protected from flooding and landslides have environmental and economic importance for Rwanda and neighboring countries.

The degradation of the water bodies’ basins has been polluting and flooding River Rusizi with soil erosion and landslides, despite the river being used to generate electricity for the three countries.

Rusizi IV Hydropower plant, to be situated on the Ruzizi River between Rwanda and the DR of Congo, will supply 287 MW of electricity to the DR Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda.

Lake Kivu in Rwanda supplies electricity to the national grid through methane gas extraction.

The construction of a multi-million plant to produce compressed natural gas for cooking, vehicles and industries from Lake Kivu methane gas is going on in Karongi district on Lake Kivu.

Sam Kanyamibwa, the CEO of Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) tasked to restore degraded land in Rusizi River and Lake Kivu catchments said that since Rwanda is still facing the loss of human lives because of climate change, restoring degraded land is needed to adapt to the effects.

"Climate change is affecting us through floods, landslides causing loss of human lives. Freshwater in Lake Kivu and River Rusizi has to be conserved. These are very important resources. We are happy to have the government of Rwanda hosting this initiative,” he said.

He noted that the land restoration initiative supported by the Bezos Earth Fund will benefit 60,000 people across Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC.

The Bezos Earth Fund, set to finance the landscapes restoration, was created by a commitment of $10 billion from American-entrepreneur, Jeff Bezos, to be disbursed as grants within a 10-year period to among others fight climate change and protect nature.

Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, computer engineer, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon.

Kanyamirwa added that the funding will also contribute to achieve targets under the AFR100 initiative.

AFR100 is a country-led effort to bring 100 million hectares of land in Africa into restoration by 2030 and Rwanda committed to restoring two million hectares of degraded lands.

The initiative is based on the fact that Africa suffers from the highest level of degradation on earth at 65 per cent, leading to food and water insecurity, widespread erosion, limited economic opportunities, and vulnerabilities to climate change.

According to Minister for Environment, Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, since 2010, 708,628 hectares of degraded land, forests, and wetlands have been restored through 44 projects.

Rwanda has committed to restoring two million hectares, equivalent to 76% of the national land, under the Bonn Challenge.

Over 1,000 jobs will be created from restoration activities while close to 4,000 hectares of integrated restoration sites in Rusizi River and Lake Kivu basins will serve as model and learning for landscape restoration actors to effectively restore at least 50,0000 ha of land.