Water quality issues in Rwanda

Andromede Uwase Author

04/04/2021 Added

126 Plays

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The main challenges to water quality in Rwanda and recommendations of possible solutions that can be implemented

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[00:00:01.560]My name is Andromede Uwase[inaudible].
[00:00:03.660]am a junior student at university of Nebraska Lincoln,
[00:00:07.020]and my project is about water quality issues in Rwanda.
[00:00:11.550]Water is very important in sustainable development.
[00:00:15.270]It is crucial for energy and food production, human
[00:00:18.990]life survival and other sectors,
[00:00:22.290]but the UN report that was conducted in 2009
[00:00:27.090]shows that more than 2 billion people,
[00:00:29.550]worldwide face water stress in their countries and the report
[00:00:34.410]that was conducted the 2013 shows that one in nine
[00:00:39.360]people worldwide lack the access to clean water,
[00:00:43.110]either for drinking or other consumption. Developing countries,
[00:00:47.820]like Rwanda
[00:00:48.620]and some other African countries are most affected by the water
[00:00:53.340]shortage and poor quality because of the factors like fecal
[00:00:58.320]materials, waste water and climate change.
[00:01:02.790]And this end up harming the economic development and human health
[00:01:07.560]in these countries.
[00:01:09.900]Rwanda is a landlocked country in East central part of Africa.
[00:01:14.970]If you look on this map of Africa here,
[00:01:17.670]you will see Rwanda in the middle and Rwanda has
[00:01:22.260]both the ground and surface water sources and two main different basin.
[00:01:27.480]These basins are Congo and Nile.
[00:01:30.990]The purpose of my project was to use the literature reviews
[00:01:35.040]to understand and identify the main challenges to water quality issues in Rwanda.
[00:01:39.990]And recommend possible solutions that can be implemented to solve these
[00:01:44.820]problems.
[00:01:47.130]Most Rwanda's groundwater comes from precipitation and
[00:01:51.960]Rwanda ground groundwater is the primary source of fresh water and most
[00:01:56.330]reliable in agriculture and domestic use.
[00:02:00.300]And surface water of Rwanda is composed by lakes
[00:02:04.620]rivers, streams wetlands and marshland.
[00:02:08.880]And it's occupies 10.6% of the country surface
[00:02:14.370]together,
[00:02:15.390]ground and surface water present 15% of the national
[00:02:20.070]territory. The sustainable development goals
[00:02:24.480]agenda of 2030 brings water quality issues to the
[00:02:28.980]forefront of international action to respond to the concerning
[00:02:33.360]challenge that globally threatens water quality in
[00:02:37.950]Rwanda. The first issue is fuel pollution.
[00:02:43.200]This is the contamination of water with pathogens.
[00:02:47.580]Most groundwater source in Rwanda especially rural areas.
[00:02:51.720]are contaminated with these pollutants from either human or
[00:02:56.760]animals.
[00:02:58.110]And they are the main cause of the waterborne diseases and mortality
[00:03:02.890]rate of children under age of five.
[00:03:06.910]The study that was conducted in 2015 in 30
[00:03:11.420]district of Rwanda to analyze fecal contamination
[00:03:14.770]level in drinking water showed the presence of fecal
[00:03:19.210]coliform and Escherichia coli( E.coli)
[00:03:22.240]these are the bacterias that indicate when water has been contaminated
[00:03:26.890]with this fecal materials from human
[00:03:31.380]or animals. The second challenge
[00:03:35.910]Is urbanization and waste dumping.
[00:03:39.480]the UN report that was conducted in 2014 on world
[00:03:44.160]urbanization shows that by 2050,
[00:03:48.480]the world could add 2.5 billion of urban population.
[00:03:54.120]And it was estimated that 22% of water globally
[00:03:58.920]gets used by the industries. However,
[00:04:02.610]these industries discharged massive amount of pollutants and
[00:04:07.260]waste in the water sources . In Rwanda.
[00:04:10.950]The urban areas population have raised by
[00:04:16.000]16.6% from 2002 to 2007,
[00:04:20.810], And as the population increases,
[00:04:25.890]there is a development of industrial sectors,
[00:04:29.550]50% of the industries in Rwanda lack the access
[00:04:34.500]to waste management.
[00:04:36.810]And this cause the illegal release of untreated discharge into the water
[00:04:41.730]sources.
[00:04:43.890]The third challenge is climate change.
[00:04:47.520]Climate change impacts the water cycle and put pressure on food
[00:04:51.930]production and drinking water supplies.
[00:04:55.410]The prediction shows that less precipitation
[00:04:58.860]and warmer temperature in the
[00:05:02.940]subtropical and equatorial eastern
[00:05:05.010]part of Africa where Rwanda is located, may increase
[00:05:09.780]the rate of desertification and the increase in precipitation
[00:05:14.970]cause the chemicals like pesticides to run off. and the
[00:05:19.800]increase of precipitation cause also flooding,
[00:05:22.890]which cause the water quality degradation.
[00:05:27.300]to summarize these challenges
[00:05:30.140]of water quality in Rwanda Fecal pollution is the most significant challenge
[00:05:35.190]because it contains the infectious micro organisms,
[00:05:38.880]which are threats to human health. Ingestion of food,
[00:05:42.870]which was contaminated by these fecal materials can cause water
[00:05:47.770]borne diseases and children death.
[00:05:53.190]Possible solutions that I can suggest are
[00:05:58.820]educating people about different ways of treating water and manage the available
[00:06:03.800]resources. Another one is environmental monitoring,
[00:06:08.060]monitor and control, the sources of emission,
[00:06:11.900]also establishment of wastewater and solid waste treatment
[00:06:16.610]facilities,
[00:06:17.840]mostly by the industries also, uh,
[00:06:23.540]the crop intensification program,
[00:06:25.790]which will reduce the use of chemicals ,
[00:06:29.180]in enhancing the soil fertility.
[00:06:32.210]So this will reduce the run off of this chemicals to the water
[00:06:36.620]sources. to summarize these solutions,
[00:06:41.540]water quality monitoring is, the main recommendation.
[00:06:45.140]water quality monitoring is used to alert about the current ongoing
[00:06:50.180]and emerging threats and problems to water sources, also with
[00:06:54.440]the goal of maintaining the quality of water
[00:06:57.140]sources. Establishment of new and
[00:07:01.730]empowering existing water quality monitoring strategies is my
[00:07:06.140]main recommendation
[00:07:07.730]It will help in the identification of pollution sources before they
[00:07:12.650]enter the water source and also will provide the empirical evidence
[00:07:17.930]to support the decision making and
[00:07:20.960]to know the sources of water that should be focused
[00:07:25.580]on.
[00:07:26.810]So the materials that is that is most needed to implement, uh,
[00:07:31.310]these water quality monitoring strategies are the technology or tools and the
[00:07:36.200]equipment ,water centers for research,
[00:07:40.370]also the education and training,
[00:07:43.130]to people who will be implementing these.
[00:07:47.500]strategies.
[00:07:49.720]Also the main and important one is to look for the fundings
[00:07:54.790]and grants,
[00:07:56.140]sources that can help in the research and implementing these
[00:08:01.090]strategies and actions.
[00:08:04.960]And these are my references.
[00:08:07.510]And to end i would like to thank my
[00:08:11.500]advisor for this project, Dr. Daniel Snow,
[00:08:16.060]thank you for all the support and guidance, in this project.
[00:08:20.920]And thank you.

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Water quality issues in Rwanda

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