Kigali, 13^th March, 2017-The National Water week, dedicated to awareness raising activities on various aspects of water management and uses, kicks off from the 13^th -25^th March, 2017, under the theme “Water and wastewater”, to prepare the World Water Day that is celebrated annually on 22 March 2017.  

The National water week precedes the celebration of World Water Day.  Among activities of the week to be conducted include a media tour; inauguration of Water Supply Systems; exhibition of best practices, products and services; as well as launch of the new National Water Supply and Sanitation Policies and their implementing Strategies.

13^th March 2017, the 1^st day of the national water week was marked by a media tour which provided a unique opportunity to journalists from different media houses to get engaged in the World Water Week; better understand the thematic scope highlighting important perspectives on the World Water Day theme; and take necessary steps to disseminate the acquired information among followers of the respective media houses.

The tour was featured by an induction session on different aspects concerning water production and management cycles as well as the engagement of relevant water-dependent sectors for efficient use of water and reuse of wastewater. Journalists were provided with details on water Cycle, access to drinking water and sanitation, status of wastewater management and treatment process. 

The presentation on wastewater treatment and management in Rwanda was an occasion to journalists to understand current gaps connected to a rapid rate of urbanization, and water-waste challenges in dense urban environments mainly in City of Kigali.

Further to presentations and discussions which took place at MINIRENA head office, a sightseeing visit was offered to journalists at Nzove, Bralirwa and Gacuriro where they visited different water supply and wastewater treatment systems.

At Nzove site, journalists visited a mega water production project that is implemented by Culligan International and composed of three sub-projects: the existing plant with production capacity of about 22,000 m³/day, the newly completed Nzove II Water Treatment Plan with the current production capacity of 25,000 m³/Day that is being upgraded to 40,000 m3/day and the new plant under construction with initial capacity of 40,000 m³ / day upgradable to 65,000 m³/day.

In a similar event, Journalists visited a wastewater treatment plant at BRALIRWA in Kicukiro District, City of Kigali. The wastewater treatment plant was meant to enable the factory to treat all wastewater generated from manufacturing processes for safe and proper disposal.
The wastewater treatment facility has capacity to treat 300 cubic meters (m³) per day. 

A like system was witnessed at Umucyo Estate located in Gaculiro, Kacyiro District, Kigali which was implemented to support water and sanitation environment and comply with the watershed rules and regulations. The plant Estate is equipped with a biological wastewater system that consists of treating wastewater from 300 houses in Gaculiro UMUCYO.

After this tour, journalists were committed to advocating for sustainable management of water resources; increasing public awareness on the important role of communities in management of water supply and waste water infrastructures; and use their media to educate the public on the good management of available clean water.