Businesses have to wait longer as water rationing runs for two years

Olivier turns on his water tap at home only for a hissing sound to come, a familiar sign that his water tap is still ‘dry’. The resident of ‘Kwa Mushimire” in Kimironko closes the tap, looks at the sky thoughtfully and takes his water container as he tries to figure out where he could go to fetch water for the family. This was the fourth day to hear the same sound from the water tap, he says, adding that dry taps have become the norm in the neighbourhood. Like Olivier, many city dwellers and businesses endure dry taps for days or even weeks. When Water and Sanitation Corporation (Wasac) was formed, last year, many thought that their woes with water scarcity would be history, but it looks like they will wait much longer to get stable water supply. And this spells more woes for business operators such as hoteliers and others who rely heavily on water for proper sanitation and service delivery. Nsengimana, a soccer fan, was last week left red-faced when, after helping himself to the loos of a popular hangout in Remera, Kigali, at the weekend, there was no water in the taps. Wasac was formed after the Energy Water and Sanitation Authority (EWSA) was split into two entities as one of the reforms aimed at improving service delivery. EWSA faced numerous challenges, including tedious client billing procedures, financial mismanagement, bureaucratic procurement processes, low water production to insufficient distribution networks, which the split was partly supposed to reduce and ensure Rwandans got uninterrupted water supply. James Sano, the then deputy director-general in charge of water and sanitation at defunct EWSA, knew the uphill task he faced, especially in revamping the sector, when he was appointed Wasac chief executive. Six months into the job, Sano says they have set the utility on a ‘path to recovery’ so that city residents like Olivier, Nsengimana and Rwandans in other areas can access clean tap water at all times. To fulfill this, Sano says mechanisms have been put in place to improve the firm’s efficiency in service delivery, with a number of projects that aim at satisfying the current water demand countrywide. People drawing water in Karongi district The Wasac chief said the growth in per capita income and increased population, especially in the City of Kigali, has led to a surge in water demand to 110,000 cubic meters per day, of which Wasac can only supply 60 per cent or pump 65,000 cubic meters per day. To meet the growing demand, Wasac is implementing a public-private partnership project with a foreign investor, Culligan, an American water treatment company, at Kanzenze in Nyamata District in the Eastern Province, he notes. He says the project will increase water production by another 40,000 cubic meters per day in the next 24 months. “We are going to sign a partnership agreement with the firm this week, after which, the investor will have four to five months to mobilise resources to kick-start the project,” Sano said. He adds that the water body has developed another project, which will add 25,000 cubic meters per day in the next seven months. This will be a huge relief for city dwellers as Wasac will be able to pump 90,000 cubic meters per day by August, according to Sano. When completed, the current rationing will be limited to around 10 per cent of the present demand. Wasac rations water in the City of Kigali, Gicumbi, Muhanga, Ruhango and Nyanza towns, while the rest of the areas of the country receive adequate supply, according to the utility. Responding to complaints from businesses and industries, Sano said they ration all places equally, arguing they cannot decide to prioritise supplying some entities and ignore other users. He said the main focus is to increase production to meet the demand. He notes they are going to upgrade the distribution network and plug any leakages to satisfy the growing clientele. “The network in Kigali was constructed 40 to 50 years ago, and was meant to serve 300,000 people. Today, we have over a million people living in the city,” Sano said. He said Wasac has increased water supply in Kigali over the last six years, from 27,000 cubic meters per day to 65,000 cubic meters, distributed through the same old network that is prone to leakages. “As a result, sometimes water doesn’t reach certain areas,” he said, adding that the European Investment Bank has accepted to finance Wasac to revamp the distribution network in the next fiscal year, a move he says will help save some water that is lost through leakages. The water utility serves over 157,000 clients presently. Other measures to create efficiency Wasac launched an electronic payment system last week, which will ease payment of water bills and enable the water body bill up to 98 per cent of the clients. Clients can now pay their water bills using mobile money, internet and mobile banking. “We used to collect about Rwf800 million per month from clients, but we get up to Rwf1.2 billion per month presently,” he noted. With the new e-payment system in place, Sano says the next step will be to develop an application that could enable clients receive water bills on their mobile phones. Sano said Wasac will integrate the billing system with its enterprise resource planning system, which will enable them produce error-free financials compared to the present situation, where all information is entered into a system manually.

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Businesses have to wait longer as water rationing runs for two years