Kigali, 24th February, 2016-The City of Kigali is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa with high demand in utility infrastructure including water and sanitation.

The Government of Rwanda through the Ministry of Infrastructure, Water and Sanitation Corporation Ltd (WASAC) and the City of Kigali is undertaking measures to deal with waste management in the city in order to improve urban sanitation as well as protecting the environment.

The Kigali City Sanitation Master Plan was developed and adopted in 2010 after which a number of sanitation projects to address waste water management issues are being undertaken.

The projects under development will reclaim clean water that meets the required standards for discharge into the environment from black water (sewage) and grey water (other domestic wastewater apart from sewage) generated from the City.

The Kigali City Sanitation Master Plan is now being implemented starting with priority areas including Kigali Central Business District. A number of projects to address wastewater management challenges in Kigali are under development, and these are:

-    Kigali Centralized Sewerage System including a Waste Water Treatment Plant, covering Kigali Central Business District with the option to extend sewage network to Kimihurura and parts of Kacyiru and Gisozi in Gasabo District.

-    Kigali Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant which will receive and treat sewage and sludge exhausted from decentralized sewage systems.
-    Rehabilitation and Upgrading of Semi-Centralized Sewerage Systems in Kigali Estates. 

The overall objective of the Kigali Centralized Sewerage project is to improve collective sanitation services, enhance public health resilience and protecting the City water catchments and rivers. This will enable the provision of well-balanced ecosystems in the environment, and thereby enhance the ability of the catchments to provide eco systems services such clean water and climate change resilience.

This project was designed to cater for full flows at saturation levels in areas covering Kiyovu-Rugenge, Nyarugenge, Gitega and Muhima–the Central Business District’ including residential housing, high, middle and low-income, both formal and informal with the possibility of expansion of the area of the project.

All the studies including Engineering Design, Economic Feasibility Study and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment are under development and will be completed end of March 2016. There has been interests from a number of development partners to finance the Kigali centralized Sewerage System project, including the European Investment Bank (EIB) which is currently financing the ongoing appraisal studies that are a precondition for financing.

Apart from Kigali Centralized Sewerage project, Kigali Feacal sludge treatment project has been initiated and the study for the Conceptual Design, performance specifications of Septic Tank Sludge Management and treatment plant will be completed end April 2016. The construction of the plant is planned in the fiscal year 2016/17.

Given that the completion of the aforesaid projects requires huge investment, there is a plan to implement them progressively and the Government will continue engaging partners throughout different implementation phases.
For more information, please contact  info@mininfra.gov.rw/info@wasac.rw


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