The Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Rwanda Visits SCALE Project

16-11-2021

On 12th November 2021, a delegation from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Rwanda visited the Sustainable Water Fund Project 'Scaling Universal Access to Safe and Climate Resilient Water Services in Rwanda, with focus on Small Towns (SCALE)'. The purpose of the visit was to witness progress of the implementation of the project’s interventions.

An improved rainwater harvesting (RWH) scheme constructed at GS Rutoma is one of the visited activities. This scheme is equipped with a water treatment solution that allows use of some of the water for drinking purposes. The school acting headteacher expressed great appreciation to the project for providing access to safe, clean, and sustainable water. She stated that the school is not connected to WASAC’s piped water network and therefore they used to purchase at least 1200 litters of water per day for drinking purposes, which was expensive and unsustainable. This RWH scheme design is, therefore, cost effective, sustainable and provides safe drinking water.

A prepaid water meter that is installed on a public tap was also visited. This type of meter is also referred to as “Water ATM” because it is capable of dispensing water using a tag without the intervention of a kiosk operator. The delegation heard from the residents the added value of the “Water ATM”, which is that they are now able to fetch water 24/7 thereby reducing queueing.

The delegation was also briefed on the progress of other components of the project where 62,765 people have so far been provided with improved water access contributing to SDG6 targets, NRW reduced significantly, WASAC staff trained on water safety plan and a benchmarking framework developed for upscaling of best practices.

The visit concluded with a meeting of Rwamagana district local government, one of the project stakeholders. On behalf of the district, the acting Mayor conveyed their appreciation of the project’s work, amid COVID-19 pandemic.