Water Supply and Sanitation in Rwanda - History and Recent Events

History and Recent Events

From 1950 to 1984 water in rural areas was provided free of charge to beneficiaries and infrastructure was owned by the national government. Beginning in 1984 the responsibility for rural service provision was transferred to communities. In 1987 a decree (Arrêté Présidentiel n°291/11 du 15 mai 1987) transferred ownership of rural water infrastructure to districts, well before the government enacted a comprehensive decentralization policy.

From 1990–1993 the country was engulfed in a Civil War, followed by a massive Genocide in 1994.

Reconstruction activities after the war initially did not achieve a large increase in water supply and sanitation coverage, nor was there a sustainable management model for water systems in rural areas. Many users did not pay for water, some collected funds were mismanaged, and voluntary members of water committees in charge of operating and maintaining systems were often poorly motivated. As a result, about half of rural water schemes did not function in 2004 according to an extensive field survey. The adoption of a new sector policy based on a demand driven approach in 1997 did not change the situation much.