Kigali, Rwanda - Rwanda has launched an irrigation project aimed at providing water from the Muvumba river to some localities in the Umutara region for farming, PANA reported from here Friday. Umutara region is located in the drought-ravaged northeastern part of Rwanda. Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza laid the foundation stone of the project in Gatsibo district, identified as the most affected by drought, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. The project will irrigate a marshy area, estimated at 1,500 hectares and stretching over a length of 27 kilometers, the statement disclosed.

'The project includes another component to supply drinking water to local residents,' said the release, which did not disclose the quantity of water that would be pumped from Muvumba River (Northeast).

It stated further that more efforts would be geared towards rice cultivation in swampy areas of Rwagitima and Gatsibo, to generate an annual production of some 2,000 tonnes of rice.

Muvumba River crosses the extreme northeast of Rwanda to the border with Uganda before flowing into Akagera River, which also flows into Lake Victoria, described as the true source of the Nile River (6,500 km).

The launching of the irrigation project came weeks after the Minister of Agriculture, Mrs. Agnes Kalibata, announced that the country, in its strategy of promoting the agricultural sector, planned to irrigate, by 2013, not less than 100,000 hectares of land.

Pana 26/03/2011