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.
