Water Sub- Sector

RURA mandate in water sub-sector is to regulate the provision of water services in a way that promotes fair competition, sustainable and efficient use of water resources and to ensure that water service providers offer a good quality of service in regards to drinking water.

i.1 Responsibility

The responsibility of the water and sanitation regulation unit is to licensing water service providers, monitor compliance by licensees with laws and standards as well as license terms and conditions, ensure the quality of service in water service delivery, monitor performances of service providers, advise the Government on policies relating to water, perform audits and inspections to water service providers to assess the service provision.
The outcomes of Audits and Inspections to water service providers may be:

  • Suggestion, in case the situation needs to be redressed but the trend does not show or predict any problems in the near future that may compromise the quality of service,
  • Recommendation, in case the trend forecasts a future problem if the situation is not corrected. In this case, a preventive measure is necessary to be taken to proactively deal with the concern.
  • Enforcement: This happens when there is a noticeable problem that may soon or later compromise the quality of service. In this case, the water service provider is given a specific period of time in which corrective measures must be taken to prevent the occurrence of the foreseeable threat to a given standard. The purpose of enforcement is to ensure that preventative or remedial action is taken to protect the public health and the environment or to ensure compliance with a standard.

i.2. Current Situation

The water service provision in Rwanda is subdivided into two main components:

  • Urban: The water service provision in urban areas of Rwanda is provided by WASAC (Water and sanitation Corporation Ltd). WASAC is a public utility that is licensed to operate and manage water treatment plants and distribution networks within urban and peri-urban areas.
  • Rural: The water service provision in rural areas is provided by Private Operators under management contracts with Districts in the form of Public-Private-Partnerships. These companies and cooperatives are licensed to operate within determined service areas other than urban and peri-urban areas. 

i.3. Legal and Regulatory framework

 The following are tools that help the regulation of water:

Water Legislation and Policy instruments:

i. 4. Water and Sanitation Statistics

i. 5. Water and Sanitation Publications

  • Water and Sanitation Publications

i. 6. Applications forms for Water and Sanitation Sector

  • Applications Forms

i. 7. Main Stakeholders