Kigali’s informal settlements battle with hygiene

Jeanne Mukandida proudly shares a one-roomed house with her three children.Opposite is the house of her 60-year-old mother, which she also shares with four tenants.In the middle, a pit-latrine that also serves as a bathroom is shared between several families, including five people in an adjacent house.This is Gitega neighbourhood, located in Gitega sector, Nyarugenge District, one of the informal settlements in the City of Kigali.The City of Kigali (CoK) is famous for its cleanliness, but not here.The majority of the people in this area have no pit-latrines and their hygiene is very poor. Mukandinda, for example, cooks beans for sale to her customers mostly neighbours. She sells beans at Rwf50 per ladle to people who have no money to afford the much needed charcoal.Its lunch time and Mukandinda emerges from the pit-latrine. She finds a neighbour approaching to buy cooked beans and without washing her hands, she serves her client straight away.Opposite, a mother is washing clothes and since there is no water channel, she pours dirty water in the open ground.Solid waste is also another challenge in the slums.While in every city sector there is a firm that collects waste from homes to Nduba dumping site, some residents do not want to pay for garbage collection.Normally, the arrangement is between the garbage collection firm and a family to collect garbage on a monthly basis.The cost ranges between Rwf2,000 and Rwf5,000 depending on the status of the neighbourhood. Then the firm collects waste door-to-door per week.However, a hygiene and environment team has found out that in some neighborhoods, residents do not pay this money. They instead dump waste in water channels which blocks them.“Sometimes we pay, but the company takes around two weeks without collecting. It is the reason why we resort to other disposal ways,” said Jean Bosco Hakizimana, a resident of Kamutwa cell, Kacyiru sector in Gasabo District. The City authorities acknowledge that they are encountering challenges in improving hygiene in informal settlements.Different measures, including a campaign which will see the best practices rewarded, are being implemented.Dr Blaise Uhagaze, Director of Public Health and Environment at the City of Kigali, says toilet facilities and accommodation are some of the challenges people face in informal settlements which puts them at the risk of diseases.He said: “We know the challenges they face. Some homes do not have space where to dig a pit-latrine, or channel that connects to the drainage system.”He appealed to people sharing pit-latrines to ensure they are clean and adopt the culture of washing hands after visiting a latrine to minimise contamination.Besides cleaning, he said, they should dig a hole where they can pour dirty water to avoid polluting the environment.Paulin Buregeye, the Chief Executive Officer of Cooped, a cleaning firm, said there is still need for serious monitoring of the garbage collectors but residents also need to be sensitised on hygiene.Hygiene campaignHygiene in the city is not a challenge of homes in slums alone, even commercial buildings and other public places still have issues to fix.According to a midterm evaluation conducted in October this year, several waste management issues still exist.The most recurrent issue is discharging of waste water in wetlands, by hotels, hospitals and schools which do not have water treatment plants.In July, the CoK launched a six-month cleanliness campaign targeting city residents. The campaign aims at having 100 per cent of the families employ cleaning companies.Besides greening and general cleaning which is a common requirement, it also encourages owners of residential or commercial buildings and other facilities close to main roads to pave their grounds, and maintain hygiene.The Rwanda National Police is a major partner in this campaign. They introduced awards to individuals/institutions with high hygiene standards. The awards include a pick -up that will be given to the best sector, and a motorcycle to be won by a commercial motorcyclist.