Rwanda : All-out resolve against Nyakatsi
Rwanda has recently embarked on a campaign to phase out grass-thatched houses, locally known as “nyakatsi”, in Kinyarwanda vernacular. According to available statistics, more than eighty thousand huts will be replaced by bricks and iron sheets roofed houses.
The campaign against poor housing that kicked off countrywide mid-January fits in a large programme to improve health and social wellbeing of the population. The eradication of grass houses is a boost to national policy on rural housing which focuses on construction in planned settlement sites. In 1997, Rwanda adopted a villagisation policy to free up dwindling arable lands and to improve access to basic public services such as health, schools, water and electricity. Thus, all new houses in the campaign against nyakatsi ought to be constructed in the designated sites in each of more 12,000 cells of the country.
The grass-thatched houses have been blamed for causing several diseases and poor hygiene conditions of residents. According to statistics from the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (2009), four out of every 10 grass houses burn down each year as a result of using flames to cook food in or around high flammable environment.
The war against “nyakatsi” has now become a national call; the population of all walks of life are involved in helping the most vulnerable amongst them to have cleaner and durable houses. The army and police personnel and other groups such as members of the Rwanda diaspora have been called in to build houses for the least disadvantaged as the government provides iron sheets and other building materials. Community members extend a helping hand through a monthly community service consisting in gathering materials, elevating walls and putting up roofs.
BTC supports the construction of houses for vulnerable families in the Northern Province, as a contribution to efforts to spur unity and reconciliation. “Local authorities came to identify all of us who live in nyakatsi. We were literally exposed to rain. Today we are happy because you have come to help us getting out of the abject conditions. However, much as we appreciate these houses we’re getting soon, we also need (potable) water in this village. It is extremely difficult for us elderly to carry heavy jerrycans from streams down the valley”, conceded jubilant Hatungimana Paul, a prospective beneficiary of the project initiative in Rugerero Village, Rulindo district.
Nineteen BTC junior assistants recently joined the local population in a community work to level the ground and plant trees on a construction site for ten new houses for the vulnerable families in Kirenge Cell, Rusiga Sector, Rulindo District. The project will build more than 200 houses in the five districts in the Northern Province.
There have been reports in the local media about cases of resistance to embrace the new housing scheme in some parts of the country. Some die-hard traditionalists argue that through these huts they reconnect easily with ancestors. On the other hand, while appreciating the benefits of sheet-roofed houses, others would like to keep grass covered huts to serve as shelter during the heat of the day.
Whatever the perceptions, the government of Rwanda is resolutely determined to have the last grass-thatched huts replaced by decent and solid houses by May 2011.
