Rwanda: Rainwater Harvest Is Essential

opinion

This rain season has been both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, torrential rainfall has destroyed hectares of crops in parts of the Western and Northern provinces, while on the other, it has been a boon to other parts of the country. Here in Kigali, over the last few weeks, barely a day has passed without an hour or so of rain.
While this rain might be seen as an inconvenience to pedestrians, it should be seen as a blessing instead. If every household stored this rainwater, water bills could be reduced and EWSA's supplies of clean water could be better managed.
On a larger scale, Kigali City Council should implement ways to recycle all the waste water so that, when the dry season arrives, it can use this stored water to, for example, water the palm trees.
Although Israel is found in a semi-arid area, it is one of the biggest flower and fruit exporters in the world; this is simply because they use their limited supplies of water efficiently. Rwandan farmers have lessons to learn.
It is unfortunate that, despite the fact that there is sufficient rainfall year round, farmers still complain of insufficient rainfall impacting on their crop yields. Let us look at these rains as a blessing, not a curse.
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