Project News

On 28th June 2019, the 1st Task Force (TF) meeting was held in Kigali. The TF is the main structure of the WAMCAB Project, and the members consist of various organizations concerned (RAB Headquarters, RAB stations and targeted Districts). This meeting will be held once every 3 months, in which the progress of the Project will be shared and the way forward will be discussed.

In this 1st TF meeting, the followings were discussed and concluded:

• Agreement of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed amonog RAB, target Districts and WAMCAB Project;
• Consideration of designing applicable and appropriate model depending on the irrigation system;
• Coordination between Irrigation Water User Organizations (IWUOs) and Cooperatives for the success of the Project; and
• Close collaboration with District authorities to ensure smooth running of the baseline survey^[1]

In July, irrigation scheme^[2] survey was conducted in 7 Districts including the targeted Districts, namely Ngoma, Rwamagana and Gisagara. This is the core part of the baseline survey and the purpose is to collect basic information, review past activities and identify problems to grasp current situation of the developed irrigation schemes in these Districts. Afterwards, counterpart (C/P) and WAMCAB team will conduct capacity assessment of the organizations concerned, the survey on the private service providers and so on, and complete the baseline survey. Based on these results, WAMCAB team will work with C/P to formulate the Improvement Plan / Training Plan for Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) procedures, IWUOs management, operation and maintenance of irrigation facilities, water management and farm management in the model irrigation schemes.

Presentation by WAMCAB team during the 1st TF meeting

C/P and WAMCAB team collecting information during baseline survey

JICA staff: Rural Development Department (Rwanda office) Chika YUKI