Local industries have differently expressed their concerns on the looming water crisis that has reportedly affected their operations. The shortage started way back in June due to the prolonged drought forcing the country’s Water and Sanitation Corporation body to ration supply.

According to the Business Times survey, some industrialists say they have been affected while others claim to be operating smoothly.

The acting Managing Director of Inyange Industries, John Bosco Kanimba said that they have greatly been affected. "We always run short of water to clean our machines. So we opt to buy at least 20 cubic metres (20,000 litres) of water per week,” he explained.

The Gikondo based industries processes milk and juices while the other factory that is located in Byumba process mineral water. All their products are branded as Inyange.

Kanimba said that it would have been worse if the water plant was also located in Gikondo.

"The problem is however expected to come to an end once the industries relocate to the new plant located in Masaka. The plant has enough capacity with water access from Ndera,” he added.

Electrgaz has projected that there should be enough water by the end of September.

However Sulfo Rwanda Industries, manufacturer of toiletries, cosmetics and Nil mineral water, said they are not yet affected in any way.

"We are not affected at all and out production capacity has not even dropped. We have enough reserves that help us during this time,” explained the industries Director General, H. Dharmarajan.

Similarly, the management at Utexrwa, the country’s sole textile industry said that the water shortage has been a big concern as such.

The company’s Managing Director, Raj Rajendran said that the factory uses four bore holes and water that was harvested from rains which is now more than 500,000 litres.

"We are also using our treated water to irrigate the mulberry plantation,” he explained.

The Inyange and Sulfo officials explained that because of this a price of a carton of mineral water has been increased by 20 percent.

The addition of a Rwf500 on a carton has led to Rwf100 increase on each bottle of water sold.

This means that traders have taken advantage of the increase in demand that has been attributed to the hot season as explained by Francis Mugisha, Distributor of Inyange Industries.

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