31st March 2023: Water experts gathered for a three-day workshop at the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB) headquarters from March 29th to March 31st, 2023, to review the National Water Resources Master Plan (NWRMP) in preparation for Vision 2050.

The National Water Resources Master Plan (NWRMP) is the legal document that will inform the country's water users plans, such as the Energy Master Plan, Water Utility Master Plan, Irrigation Master Plan, and Urban Development Master Plan.

It will also inform the artificial storage development, catchment restoration interventions, nature-based solutions in water resources protection, Monitoring Information Systems (MIS), capacity building, and research in water resources management, among others.

The current National Water Resources Master plan was completed by the former Rwanda Water and Forestry Authority (RWFA) in 2015 with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Technical assistant of SHER Ingénieurs-Conseils.

However, the reasons for the key water resources actors calling for the update, or review of the National Water Resources Master plan towards 2050 include are the following:

• A need to adjust projections and ambitions to the Vision 2050, particularly the irrigation target of 600,000 hectares which is constrained by imprecise natural catchment transfer, and the high rate of urbanization as well as industrialization, as presented in the National Land Use Development Master plan for 2050 completed in 2020;
• Demand assessment by the economic sector needs to be more precise based on the Vision 2050, and hydrological data, and Hydro-economic analysis, water resources performance indicators;
• A need to properly articulate the catchment transfer scenarios;
• Separate allocation models, used by catchment, need to be integrated into one water allocation model (a unified model that can assess the national impact of each storage investment, diversions, and channeling to the balancing of water across years, seasons, and catchment);
• Phasing and prioritization of large investments such as dams and channeling need to be precise and tied to pre-feasibility to serve in the fund mobilization and project development;
• Current changes in water resources sub-sector reforms such as the establishment of RWB, among others.