Water Project

Yesterday I went on a dutch partners organised tour of a water project. I didn't really know where we were going, except the restaurant for coffee, but that was it.

It turned out to be a great trip. The EU has funded a project which has been widely accepted and appreciated by the local people.

Kigali is full of hills. It rains a lot here. So far so simple. What this means is that there are streams/rivers of water which make there way downhill every rainy season. Due to erosion this means that there were ravines through settlements which were up to 12 m deep, though mostly shallower and wider. Small children and drunk men died frequently. Houses also subsided into the water every year.

A lot of stones, sand, cement
and people power have been changing this over the past two years, and a slow fascinating engineering project has made a vast difference to the local residents. More interesting for me was the social project - the workers are orphans, widows, ex-military from both sides, and women whose husbands are in prison. They are allowed to participate in the project for 6 months (about 700 are employed). Each worker earns 1,600 a day (about 2.5 times usual unskilled day rate) 1,000 goes to the bank, and the 600 to a savings account which can't be touched until the end of the project - which by then is quite a sizeable sum. There is an informal self organized reconciliation process that goes on, but nothing mandatory, yet somehow the groups involved are putting aside their differences.


We were a vocal group, asking the (Belgian) project leader lots of questions. Unfortunately the project isn't supported by the government (not helping the right people!?!), waste of money etc, so unless the communities decide to continue with maintenance after the project is completed mid 2008 who knows. The government is however busy with similar slightly smaller gutter building throughout Kigali. The workers who have been on this project, are now skilled in a growth area where there is a shortage of experience, and so are able to find work upon leaving the project. Also this EU project ends where leading the water to a river, so it has somewhere to flow to...many of the gutter projects just lead toward low ground, which is of course used for small agricultural plots usually....

The local population didn't seem too bothered by a dozen bazungu strolling round their neighbourhood to look at their new drainage system, though we were of course a great fascination for small children who wanted their photos taken.