Chinese Government provides $5.6 million grant — via ETCA — for Borehole Drilling Project

On April 11, 2017, the Chinese Government and the Government of Rwanda agreed to conduct a feasibility study for a Borehole Drilling Project.

Then, on January 31, 2018, the Chinese Government and the Government of Rwanda signed an Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), which committed RMB 200 million ($32 million) for the Integrated Polytechnic Regional College (IPRC) Musanze Campus Expansion Project (captured via Record ID#56917) and the Borehole Drilling Project (captured via Record ID#56953).

Approximately $5.6 million of the grant funding from the ETCA was earmarked for the Borehole Drilling Project.

The purpose of this project is to drill 200 boreholes or wells in 9 districts within Rwanda’s Eastern and Southern provinces (Ngoma, Nyagatare, Bugesera, Kirehe, Rwamagana, Gatsibo and Kayonza districts in the Eastern Province and Kamonyi and Muhanga districts in the Southern Province) and provide clean drinking water to 110,000 people.

China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGC) is the contractor responsible for implementation. Construction began in November 2019. The project was originally expected to reach completion within two years (November 2021). However, the COVID-19 pandemic led to implementation delays. As of November 2021, the project had achieved an 80% completion rate.

According to Chen Jinke, a team leader of the CGC-led project, “[t]hese boreholes have a durability of 15-years, but […] residents are supposed to take good care of them.

In addition, after the construction, we shall supervise the previously constructed, to repair them if there is any damage, before handing them over to the Water and Sanitation Corporation. By May 7 2022, the boreholes had been completed and were received positively by affected residents.