The Water and Sanitation Corporation Ltd (WASAC) has reassured city dwellers on receiving safe water following several public complaints. The complaints were raised on social media site, Twitter, by different people concerning the issue of contaminated water they were getting on Wednesday through Friday. Abou-Bakr Murangwa complained of receiving dirty water and attached a picture of white jerry-cans portraying brownish water. Speaking to Saturday Times, Methode Rutagungira, director of urban water and sanitation services, explained that the brown colour was as result of cleaning the water networks. “Periodically, we have to clean our networks and this is done by flushing. We have a flushing valve where we open and increase the pressure in the networks so that we push all the segments in the pipe to go out. So some lines that are directly connected to those pipes receive the coloured water. It normally takes one to two days,” Rutagungira said. He reassured that the coloured water posed no health risks. “We don’t use dangerous chemicals when cleaning the networks. We actually use air and it’s not in any way harmful,” he said. Public concern On Tuesday, WASAC had announced on radio and social media networks informing the public about cleaning of water networks for the areas of Gisozi, Gacuriro, Gasave, Nyarutarama, Kibagabaga, Kimihurura, Rugando and Rukiri on February 17 [Wednesday]. “Those still receiving the coloured water should clean their tanks so that the water is clean. We have done the cleaning of networks for one part of the city and in close to a month’s time we will do the same for areas around Nyamirambo, Kimironko, Kucukiro and many other parts,” said Rutagungira. Abou-Bakar Murangwa, who tweeted a photo of jerrycans with coloured water, said: “The issue we had was that the water was really dirty. Most people were heading to supermarkets to buy water for showering so I decided to tweet the issue. WASAC responded by attaching an announcement they had sent to media outlets. It was somehow misleading because it didn’t mention that we were going to receive dirty water,” Murangwa told Saturday Times. He called for more public awareness whenever there is cleaning of water networks. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
