A senate ad hoc committee, on Monday January 10, started a two week tour of 63 integrated model villages across the country to investigate the challenges that residents of the communal dwellings face and come up with solutions. The committee, that consists of six senators, was formed last month following a report presented to the upper chamber of parliament highlighting challenges facing residents of model villages. Among the challenges cited include lack of appropriate biogas systems, poor maintenance of infrastructure, lack of water and electricity, malnutrition among some residents, lack of proper channel for rainwater, among others. According to a statement released by the Senate, the committee that was tasked to oversee that these challenges in the different model villages are addressed, will visit all model villages in the country starting in the districts of Huye, Gisagara, and Nyaruguru, and will later on hold meetings with the district leaders to discuss the issues. Senator Marie Rose Mureshyankwano, the chairperson of the committee, commended the government’s efforts of putting the citizens in these villages as a way to improve their welfare. “However, these villages have some serious issues like poor infrastructure where the houses do not last long, extreme dirtiness, and mismanagement of the houses by some of the residents in the villages. “That is why this committee will conduct the visits, so as to identify the root of these problems and find solutions to them when it is still early” she added. Model villages are being built by the Government in different parts of the country, mainly for vulnerable citizens, or former residents of high risk areas, as a way of bringing them together where they can get different services and facilities in one place. They mostly feature furnished three-bedroom brick homes equipped with running water, solar panels and sanitation systems, along with social and economic infrastructure like schools, medical facilities, communal cowsheds, among others.
