21st October 2022: The members of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and stakeholders of  #Muvumba Multipurpose Water Resources Development Program have organized a five-day workshop, from 17th to 21st October 2022, to review the interim report of the detailed design for Nyagatare irrigation scheme with 9,000 hectares.

The program, to be financed by the Africa Development Bank and implemented by the Rwanda Water Resources Board (RWB), is aligned to the Government of the Republic of Rwanda (GoR)’s development agenda and envisaged economic transformation as outlined in Vision 2050 and the National Strategic Transformation (NST1)

Details

The objective of the program is to improve water, energy, food and nutrition security by harnessing water resources for irrigation, domestic, livestock use and hydropower generation, while ensuring sustainability of the resources and building resilience against climate change and variability.

The first set of activities under the program are the construction of the dam including installation of the hydropower plant and preparatory studies for downstream investments for irrigation and livestock use.

The proposed dam is located on the river Muvumba in Rwanda near the Nyagatare Town.

Muvumba river arises in Uganda joins the Kagitumba River downstream, which in turn flows into the Kagera River.

The program will improve natural resources and environmental management and empower people in the district through land management and capacity development on alternative livelihood.

Beneficiaries

The initial set of activities under the program only relates to dam construction with the embedded hydropower plant with an installed capacity of 740 kW and annual power generation estimated at 5,719 MWh.

The beneficiaries include the population of Nyagatare estimated at 560,000 people while benefits will be derived from irrigation development for a command area estimated at 7,380ha covering Tabagwe, Gatunda, Karama, Rukomo, Nyagatare, Rwempasha, Musheri, and Rwimiyaga sectors; municipal water supply estimated at 24,000m3 per day for 300,000 people in Karangazi, Rwimiyaga and Nyagatare sectors in addition to livestock use.

On the other hand, estimated direct employment from the irrigation component would be 37,000 people, and indirect employment would be estimated at 30,000 people.