One of the small water Dams built in Rulindo to provide sustainable solutions to competition for water between the urban and the rural sectors. Photo: ©FAO/Teopista Mutesi

Uwimana Annonciata wakes up every day at 3am to go irrigate her crops with water from Yanze River, she is afraid that if she doesn’t get the water early she won’t be allowed to use it. She is also avoiding conflict with other farmers over water from the River. Annonciata’s district, Rulindo, is upstream in the Yanze River that supplies water to Kigali.

The Yanze watershed is the main source of the water supply for the Kigali providing up to 80 percent of the water requirements for the capital city (RNRA 2012). Like Uwimana, about 16,833 households in the District depend on Yanze watershed (Ministry of local government, 2010) for agriculture related activities.

Due to the competition for water for agriculture and supplying to Kigali, farmers are often denied the right to use the water of this river. Berumuhire Jean Bosco, a horticulture farmer in the Ngoma sector says they have been counting losses during short and long dry spells, despite the river passing through their farming areas.

“We would spend two to three days without irrigating our crops and productivity would be affected,” he says. 

“Potato seedlings and cassava plants have been drying up, even if we applied fertiliser, for not getting water. Soils in this area are dry, if we don’t irrigate during low rain seasons, our productivity is seriously reduced” says Annonciata.

In response to this reality, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), using the services of a local NGO, APEFA (Action for the Protection of the Environment and the Promotion of Agriculture value chains), made an intervention in two cells in the sector of Ngoma, Rulindo district, through the project “Rational use of Yanze River water for local agriculture development in Rulindo District and for domestic use in Kigali City”. 

Small dams for storing water

Under the project four dams were constructed in Ngoma sector targeting over 200 households. Each dam has a storage capacity of 400 cubic metres and equipped with a treadle pump.  The inflow into the dams is either from the streams that flow into the Yanze River or from rainwater. The dams provide water for supplemental irrigation for a total area of around 10 hectares, belonging mostly to members of the Yanze Horticulture Production Cooperative (YAHOPROC).

Ruhiza Jean Boroto, Senior Land and Water Officer, Land and Water Division at FAO while visiting the site emphasized that the project will reduce the vulnerability of the farmers to water scarcity and ensure effective use of Yanze river water for agriculture and for supply to Kigali City.

“In the prevailing context of higher climate variability with the rainy season being no longer predictable, supply of water is extremely important for the farmers. Whether the rains are late or not, the small dams will provide water to the farmers whenever they need it. The risk of crops failure due to the lack of rains is minimized, the farmers can plant their crops without fear of the rains being late or early. These small dams are a reliable source of water which will allow farmers to produce their vegetables for their own food security but also to generate income through the sale of the surplus produced; this income will in turn contribute to improving other components of their livelihoods”. 

The future is bright 

Nzariturande Ferdinand just like other farmers are convinced that there is going to be transformation in their livelihoods.

“The productivity of my farm will increase because I will be able to irrigate the crops and I will be growing crops all year round. Farming land will increase we will start cultivated even the idle land on the slope,” says Ferdinand. 

“Fruit and Vegetable production will increase,” says Jean Bosco 

With incomes from selling the produce farmers improve their livelihoods, capable of paying their children’s school fees, make health insurance contribution. 

Sustainability

The farmers have assigned to a team of four people at each site the responsibility to maintain the infrastructure.

They say they feel that they own the dams; they pledged to make good use of them while properly preserving and maintaining them.

The project supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular: SDG2 – “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”.