Over $1 million (over Rwf1 billion) is set to be invested in developing the Kigali ‘Stormwater Management Master Plan’ that is expected to be complete by 2024 so as to mitigate floods in the city. Stormwater is surface water in abnormal quantities resulting from heavy falls of rain. The floods are usually triggered by poor drainage systems, engineers said. The Kigali Stormwater master plan is the plan which shows how the city will be able to manage floods by improving the drainage system. According to engineers, the storm water master plan could help develop centralized drainage systems. The development was revealed on July 13 as members of the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Finance were assessing urban informal settlement and urbanization issues in the city of Kigali. “We have seen some rehabilitated drainages in different settlements and this should be scaled up across the city,” suggested Senator Marie Rose Mureshyankwano. Senator Juvénal Nkusi, the Chairperson of Committee on Economic Development and finance added, “We have realized that rehabilitating Mpazi drainage has really reduced floods in the past two years. The floods are caused by stormwater from different areas and settlements in the city. There is need for a centralized drainage system to manage stormwater so it easily flows into water bodies without damages.” Virgile Mugisha, the Project Engineer at Rwanda Urban Development Project (right), interacts with the team of senators who toured a series of city projects on July 13. Photo: Courtesy. He suggested that the storm water management master plan be developed based on long-term rain projections. While responding to senators’ questions, Virgile Mugisha, the Project Engineer at Rwanda Urban Development Project financed by World Bank in the City of Kigali said that at least $1 million is going to be invested in developing rainwater management master plan adding that $200,000 will also help to set up flood sensors. Floods sensors will be set up in different areas of the city to detect water levels to be able to come up with measures to prevent floods. “We have realized that every neighbourhood has a water channel or drainage. The stormwater master plan will assess the situation of every neighborhood. This means that some drainages or water channels that drain rainwater are not even necessary. We can therefore merge some drainages to have different centralized drainage systems that convey rainwater into wetlands and other water bodies. Improving drainages could help curb floods across the city,” he said. He added that by improving drainages according to the storm water master plan, it will be part of upgrading other informal settlements. “When we are upgrading informal settlements we also improve drainage as we did it under Agatare project in Nyarugenge district,” he said. Mugisha said that managing stormwater will also go along with wetlands rehabilitation and conservation. “This is because wetlands are there to retain stormwater and thus curb floods. Without stormwater management, more infrastructure could be still damaged by flooding,” he said.
