A continental project aimed at providing safe drinking water and sanitation, CREPA, that currently operates in 18 African countries, launched its local Chapter last week.

The Rwanda-Chapter was launched by the Minister of State for Energy and Water, Eng Collette Ruhamya, who is also the vice chair of the CREPA Ministerial Council, alongside the organisation’s CEO, Idrissa Doucoure in an invent held in Kigali.

Speaking at the launch, Ruhamya said that CREPA’s operations in Rwanda will boost the current efforts to ensure that all Rwandans have access to clean water and sanitation.

She added that; "everybody knows how people suffer when they don’t have access to clean water and sometimes, it is not because resources are lacking but it’s a matter of mindset and setting clear priorities,” Minister Ruhamya said.

"I believe, if we all put our thoughts and resources together as Africans, we can overcome all these challenges.”

 "Rwanda is privileged to have CREPA start its operations and the government will work closely and facilitate them,” she said.

Her remarks come at the time when Rwanda has set 2012 as the deadline of ensuring 100 percent rollout of adequate sanitation to all its citizens.

"We can’t talk about universal education and poverty reduction when our people are still suffering from preventable diseases, we need to provide clean water and sanitation to our people to achieve other MDGs” she said.

Currently, Rwanda is among the four sub-Saharan countries that are on track to meet this particular MDG. Others are Angola, Botswana, and South Africa.

Doucoure said that CREPA, a non-governmental organisation with headquarters in Burkina Faso, plans to extend to all 54 African countries.

The organisation deals in providing safe drinking water and sanitation to the poorest people on the continent.

 "Our plan for Rwanda is to focus on technology, researching for the key sector blockages and providing innovative and sustainable solutions to problems in the sanitation sector,” Doucoure said.

He added that he plans to provide training and capacity building for key stakeholders like NGOs, civil society, government officials, and local government authorities who provide sanitation services under the decentralised process.

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