Kigali City Implementing Master Plan

As Rwanda hosts the third Africa Conference on Sanitation andHygiene, Contact FM made a visit to one of the areas in Kigali, to get a feel of what the situation was on the ground as far as sanitation and hygiene was concerned.

Kimicanga, formed our case study; this suburb at the heart of the city of Kigali is several months away from being demolished to pave way for re-construction in light of the new Kigali city masterplan that is currently being implemented. 

 
The suburb is criss-crossed with drains, gutters or piled debris and waste from households that lack a proper sanitation program. This is however just a section of Kigali and does not depict the status of the entire city. So we asked the mayor of Kigali, Fidele Ndayisaba, what plans are in the pipeline to deal with some of these issues. Ndayisaba pointed out that there is a series of development strategies when it comes to sanitation and cleanliness especially in the different neighbourhoods in the city.
'The reconstruction work is well underway in the neighboring Kiyovu. Kimicanga will follow thereafter. This will be done not very long from now; it’s a matter of months not years.

 
Kimicanga, is not the only suburb in the capital that is targeted; others are the famous Biryogo in Nyamirambo and Gikondo in Kan-Zaire camps. The reconstruction of these areas will be in line with the standards set for hygiene and sanitation which was not the case before.
'The city of Kigali was not built according to a blueprint from the beginning. There was no plan or a well-established guideline, so we need to correct it, I know it's hard. This requires that certain buildings be demolished, so here's what will happen in these neighborhoods including Kimicanga. "

For people who live in these neighborhoods, their choice is to either adapt to these changes or move elsewhere.