Governance of Water Resources in Rwanda: The Case Study of Clean Water in Rural and Urban Areas of Muhanga District

Abstract

The governance of water resources especially the clean water has been the burden for the GoR from1950ies onwards, due to high expenditure per capita with low returns on investment leading to the failure of the sector. Evolved with recent decentralization, the water policy of the GoR relies on central tenets focusing on decentralization, local ownership and underlines the cooperative framework of all stakeholders including Private sector. The present study was conducted with the aim to identify and analyze the stakeholder’s participation, challenges of governance as well as the pathways to boost the water sector in Muhanga District. Additionally, the study is conducted in rural and urban areas of Muhanga District, respectively in Rongi and Nyamabuye sectors. The 120 households were randomly sampled for the survey in equal proportion for rural and urban areas. This research used field observations, interviews, and questionnaires as techniques of data collection. Excel and SPSS were used to analyze data. After the analysis of data, the findings of this study show that clean water governance encounters a couple of challenges namely the low and ineffective stakeholders participation, poor sector coordination and crisis of ownership at different levels. Moreover, the role of District and accountability of public institutions of water sector are critical due to a reported unbalance of interest and focus within the sector’s interventions, where urban is the priority compared to the majority of rural population (71%). Thus, the research proposed that stakeholder’s participation, better coordination of the sector associated with a raise of the public awareness and environmental water based management would be the pathways of governance leading to improved access and sustainable management of clean water resource in both rural and urban areas of Muhanga District.