Senators have resolved to summon Prime Minister in order to provide strategies to address issues affecting Integrated Development Programme (IDP) model villages and other grouped settlements.

It made the resolution as it adopted the report of the  Senatorial ad hoc committee on issues identified in IDP villages and other grouped settlement sites where the government relocate people in order to address homelessness issues and improve their living conditions.

Some of the beneficiaries were formerly residents of high-risk areas.

The ad hoc committee started a two-week tour of 63 integrated model villages across the country on Monday, January 10, 2022, to investigate the challenges that residents of the communal dwellings face and come up with solutions.

Here are some of the identified issues:

Limited access to water

Senator Rose Mureshyankwano, who headed the six-person ad hoc committee said that they inspected 67 sites including 36 IDP model villages and 31 ordinary grouped settlements.

Out of the 36 IDP model villages surveyed, Mureshyankwano said, 23  or 63.9 per cent of them have proper water, while 13 do not have water.

As a result, residents of the 13 villages resort to using water not suitable for human consumption.

For the 31 ordinary grouped settlements visited, 19 (61.2 per cent) had proper water, but 12 (38.8 per cent) lacked it.   

Mureshyankwano said that there are villages that have the water, yet the residents do not access it because the public taps were not functioning, or the public taps were closed due to failure to pay water bills.

Moreover, she exposed that some residents are not able to cover the exorbitant water fees billed to them, sometimes being charged for unused water.

"There are cases where a person from the first Ubudehe category (the poorest) who was being asked to pay Rwf300,000 water bill,” she said.

Malfunctioning biogas plants

According to the Committee report, biogas plants were not functioning in almost all the 67 villages and grouped settlements visited.

Mureshyankwano indicated that biogas plants were operating only in two of those sites.

As a result, she said, residents are unable to use the biogas plants, which results in the human waste clogging up toilets. In addition, residents resort to firewood or charcoal for cooking, damaging houses and risking lives.

Furthermore, the senators observed that there was a lack of maintenance for the biogas digesters.

Old houses in poor condition

Some of the houses constructed for the survivors of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi were very old and in poor condition.

Most of them were built in 1998 with weak materials as the country was rushing to respond to the survivors’ housing needs. 

Some of the houses need renovation, others need to be replaced by new ones because they are too unsuitable for residence, lawmakers observed.

Senators said that when it rains, the residents search for temporary accommodation from their neighbours.

They recommended that this issue gets addressed urgently to help the concerned residents.

Meanwhile, the Senate warned against relocating residents to sites that are very far from their farms as it makes it difficult for them to cultivate their land.

According to data shared by the Senate, the government targeted to construct 300 model villages countrywide by the 2023/2024 fiscal year. So far, some 100 villages have been set up.