Christelle Kwizera, a 26-year old Rwandan has been awarded the Global Citizen's 2020 Cisco Leadership Youth Award for her social enterprise Water Access Rwanda that seeks to eradicate water scarcity in Rwanda and Africa.
The award aims at recognising young activists who have stepped up against a backdrop of unprecedented global challenges to take action for the world of equal opportunities to all.
Alongside the award, Kwizera won a cash prize worth $250,000 (Rwf242 million) to finance her 6-year old project.
Speaking to The New Times, the water engineer by training said that the money will help her organisation’s effort to deliver water especially in rural areas.
"We are going to scale up machinery, and make sure people are getting water at home instead of public kiosks,” she said.
"And we will also hire more people (which had been put on hold) so as to get the company a stronger delivery.”
Effects of the pandemic
Kwizera added that Water Access Rwanda’s supply chain has been interrupted by the effects of Covid-19, expressing hope that the cash prize will revive the works that had been put on hold.
"There were increased robberies during the lockdown which interrupted our supply chain but with this money, we will have enough budget to repair what has been destroyed,” she adds.
It also happened that Water Access Rwanda started giving out water for free, because their customers were not earning.
"Our people were greatly affected, earnings got to zero:; Some had lost employment or had a bigger budget of taking care of their families because all the people were at home, so we started giving out water for free”, she recalls.
"But this prize will enable us off-set the losses.”
Since commencing its operations in 2014, Water Access Rwanda provides 70,000 people to access water across more than 86 stations in the country, particularly in Nyarugenge, Rwamagana, Ngoma, Bugesera and Rusizi districts and other districts that often face a problem of water scarcity.
By the end of 2019, Water Access Rwanda had managed to build 38 INUMA kiosks and won $100,000 from Jack Ma Foundation’s Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative.
INUMA water mini grids are ideal for a last mile piped safe water access. They are also great for back-up systems where piped water already is, as they offer a lot of reliability with water never running out, except for intended closure or quick maintenance.
Other prize’s laureates for 2020 included renowned musician Sir Elton John as the Global Citizen Artist of the Year and Bryan Stevenson, the Global Citizen of the year, among others.