Gov’t targets clean water for all by 2015

The State Minister for Energy and Water, has said that 100 percent of the Rwandan population will have treated water and have access to sanitation facilities by 2015. Coletha Ruhamya revealed this yesterday while officially opening five-day training on monitoring and evaluation and Management Information System in the drinking water and sanitation sector. The training that attracted various water and sanitation experts and stakeholders, will be conducted by Egyptian consultants. “Rwanda has committed itself to reach very ambitious targets in water supply and sanitation, with the vision to attain 100% service coverage by 2015,” said Ruhamya. “The importance of adequate water supply and sanitation services as drivers for social and economic development, poverty reduction and public health, is fully acknowledged in Rwanda’s flagship policy documents and political goals”. She noted that within the implementation period of the EDPRS (2008-2012), the sector aims to increase the proportion of the population accessing safe water from 64 percent to 86 percent, and the proportion and sanitation services from 38 percent to 65 percent. “It is also planned to increase the proportion of the rural population living within 500m of an improved water source from 64% to 85%, and to raise the proportion of the urban population residing within 200 metres of improved water points from 69% to 100%,” Ruhamya added. According to the minister, the training comes at a time when the sector was the problem of having poor access to updated baseline information and absence of a system for collection, managing and dissemination of pertinent information on water sources and sanitation to guide decision making and weak community management systems. In an interview with The New Times, Albert Yaramba, the coordinator of National Rural Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (PNEAR), said the training will enable efficient flow of information between authorities and stakeholders. According to Yaramba, currently 76 percent of Rwandans have access to clean water while 56 percent have access to sanitation. Ends