19th October 2022: The drought-stricken farmers of Tugane Heza Cooperative, operating in Kabarondo and Murama sectors of Kayonza District, were counting losses due to dry spells despite having the Rwinkwavu dam.

The dam capacity is currently 6,750,719 cubic meters with the water amount to be abstracted for irrigation equivalent to 6,873,280 cubic meters within a six-month period.

So far, this agricultural cooperative consists of 4,465 members and it particularly focuses on growing rice and vegetables on their 1,460-hectare-cropland.

As testified by Jean Pierre Mvutseneza, the cooperative's leader, their crops were being ravaged by drought since there weren't enough irrigation facilities available.

“As a result, all farmers jointly gathered for a viable solution for this ongoing climate change challenge,”

“We realized that the Rwinkwavu dam was one of the climate adaptation strategies in place in terms of the response to ensure we had enough water for irrigation that could also enable us to bolster our agricultural activities,” he explained.

However, as Mvutseneza said, the cooperative leading team finally recalled that the only option was to embrace the lawful water use established in accordance with the water law and related regulations.

Then, it was time they went to the district office to request assistance related to the water allocations from the Rwinkwavu dam.

It finally arose in response to kick-off the application process for their own water use permit.

“As water users who needed a large water quantity in our activities, we learnt that any operations without a water use permit lead to the loss of the claim to use water.”

“ We were fortunate in obtaining a ten-year water use permit in 2019. Today, we are content and safe thanks to the Rwanda Water Resources Board’s water engineers, who get us technical assistance through field visits to tip us over the effective use of our water resources.”

Mvutseneza noted that ‘Tugane Heza Cooperative’ is hailed today as one of the district’s agricultural businesses that promote food security.

Details

The ‘Water Law n°49/2018 of 13/08/2018’ which ‘Determines the Use and Management of Water Resources in Rwanda, gives the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB) the tools to gather the information that we need for the optimal management of our water resources.

The water permits system is one of these tools with all water users having access to application forms for their water use permits.

According to the Water Use Permitting Guidelines by the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB), some of the key activities and works subject to water use permits include irrigation, construction of infrastructures on banks, in rivers or lakes, construction of dams, fish farming in lakes and ponds, domestic water supply, coffee washing station, industries, hydropower, mining, navigation, recreation activities, among others.