Kigali, 19th August, 2016-Water and Sanitation Corporation (WASAC) in partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has launched a project for strengthening non-revenue water control in Kigali city water network.

Water and Sanitation Corporation (hereinafter “WASAC”) in charge of water service under the supervision of MININFRA is pursuing a target of ensuring the water supply quantity of Kigali and promoting a plan to double the water supply quantity as of 2015 by the end of 2017 by implementing plans for constructing a new purification plant and expanding an existing purification plant through public-private partnerships.

However, Kigali, despite its limited water resources, had a high Non-Revenue Water (NRW) rate of

25% to 38% in 2015, Therefore, WASAC urgently needs to undertake measures for NRW reduction. Since Kigali has about half the piping length of the urban water supply network in the entire country (2,400 km), use of this Project in Kigali as a model for NRW reduction of Rwanda will allow WASAC to spread the effect to other cities.

 Non-revenue water can only decrease but we can’t stop it completely. The project will improve the utility’s capacity to identify the best way reduce revenue water losses. And collect water revenues

Rwanda has come a long way regarding controlling  non-revenue water losses, from 42 per cent to the current 35 per cent.WASAC CEO notify that  together with Ministry of Infrastructure, had come up with several initiatives to control  non-revenue water, in Kigali and upcountry water networks, One of the initiatives being the adopted Performance Improvement Programme.

The new project is a 3 years project and will improve the entire country’s water supply efficiency in the long run.

Water supply management is a big challenge not only for Rwanda but throughout the world.  Partnering with experienced water experts from Yokohama Water Utility and the Japanese government, through JICA, to reduce losses and improve the efficiency of water management.

JICA will finance all the logistics in addition to hiring Japanese expects in different fields to work with local counterparts in implementing of the project Aya Kagota, JICA programme manager, said the project serves as an “additional layer” for JICA to continue its development partnership with the country, specifically contributing toward improving water and sanitation sector performance in Rwanda.

“JICA has been an active development partner, especially in water projects in rural water supply, particularly in Eastern Province. We hope to see very strong results with support from a very experienced team from Yokohama Water Utility,” said Kagota.

Japan is the second country to partner with WASAC in strengthening non-revenue water control in Kigali city water network following the Netherlands.