A multimillion water treatment plant that was launched in Nkombo Sector in Rusizi District yesterday, giving clean water access to least 20,000 households.
According to Germaine Kamayirese, the state minister for energy, water and sanitation the$660,000 plant will help improve sanitation services in Rusizi.
He further added that ensuring all citizens are able to access clean water is vital in the promotion of sustainable development as well as managing the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera.According to him, the Rwandan government hopes to have achieved the provision of clean water as well as quality sanitation services by the year 2020.
Nkombo Island has been recording clean water levels of not more than 50%. Consequantly, the new water treatment plan which comes with 24 boreholes and a combined output of 720 cubic metres of water is projected to increase the water access levels to 90 %.
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The Nkombo water supply system is currently providing clean water to over 17,500 people, a number that is expected to increase with the completion of the project. Reports from 13 years ago by the World Health Organizationindicate that investing $1 in water, sanitation and hygiene education automatically improves that of health and other benefits of between $3 and $34.
This, of course is  depending on the technology used.
Research done for the 2006 UN Human Development Report estimated that the total cost of the current deficit in investment in water and sanitation is $170Bn. Meanwhile, the Rwandan Government recently earmarked $561.24m for water and sanitation under a new policy.
The total funding of water supply policy implementation strategy is about $404.4mto be used between 2015/16 up to 2020. In sanitation, the Government plans to use over $36.84m in infrastructure investments over a five-year period.
