RWANDA: the capacity of the Karenge water station will be tripled with $21 million from Ofid
The OPEC Fund for International Development (Ofid) is supporting the Karenge Drinking Water Supply System Expansion Project in Rwanda's Eastern Province with a $21 million loan. This financing will notably help to increase the capacity of the Karenge drinking water plant to 48,000 m3 per day.
After the expansion works of 1985 and 2008 which respectively increased the capacity of the Karenge water treatment plant to 7,200 m 3 and 15,000 m 3 per day compared to 3,840 m 3 when it was commissioned in 1975, the plant will be enlarged again. The government of Rwanda now wants to increase this capacity to 48,000 m3 per day to meet the drinking water needs of all the inhabitants of the Rwandan capital Kigali, and in the surrounding areas of the Rwamagana district until 2050.
The project, whose cost amounts to 164.3 million dollars, is co-financed by the OPEC Fund for International Development (Ofid) thanks to a loan of 21 million dollars, granted to the Rwandan government on November 9, 2023 The Director General of Ofid, Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, and the Rwandan Minister of State for Public Investment and Resource Mobilization, Jeanine Munyeshuli signed and exchanged initials on the sidelines of the Saudi-Arab Economic Conference. Africa held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the same date.
The remaining $143.4 million is provided by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (AFDF), the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (Badea) and the Bank of export and import from Hungary (Exim Hungary).
The return to service of the drinking water station in 2024
Currently, the Karenge drinking water plant located on the banks of Lake Mugesera, in the Rwamagana district, about 50 km southeast of Kigali, supplies 15,000 m 3 of water per day, of which 12,000 m 3 transported to Kigali, and 3,000 m 3 distributed to the populations of the Rwamagana district.
The Karenge drinking water plant, in the Eastern Province of Rwanda©Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure
According to the Water and Sanitation Company (Wasac) of Rwanda, which supervises the drinking water project, the expansion of the capacity of the Karenge station to 48,000 m 3 per day will involve the rehabilitation of water intake and raw water transportation pipelines, relocation of the pumping station and improvement of pump and motor capacity, and expansion of the water transportation and distribution network drinkable. The project also provides for the construction of new water intake pumps, reservoirs to store drinking water, as well as the laying of new pipelines over 33 km.
The Rwandan authorities announce the return to service of the Karenge drinking water plant for 2024.
