He made the remarks on August 18, 2026, during a five-day African conference on governance in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.
Dr Nsengiyumva said that across Africa, an estimated 418 million people lack access to basic water services, while 779 million do not have access to basic sanitation services and 839 million lack basic hygiene facilities.
He said the situation was not simply a result of African countries failing to invest in infrastructure, noting that significant investments had already been made in water systems, boreholes and water treatment facilities.
“Across our continent, significant investments have been made. Water networks have been installed, boreholes drilled, and various water treatment facilities constructed and commissioned. Yet today, many of these infrastructure facilities are no longer delivering the services they were intended to provide,” he said.
The Prime Minister stressed that constructing infrastructure should be viewed as the beginning rather than the end of efforts to improve access to water and sanitation.
“Building infrastructure is important, but it is largely only the beginning. The true measure of success is whether that infrastructure functions properly and delivers services to people sustainably,” he said.
Dr Nsengiyumva said poor management of existing infrastructure was contributing to the continued loss of large amounts of money invested in water projects. He argued that better management could significantly reduce such losses and improve service delivery.
He cited an African Union task force on water-sector investment, which found that good governance, appropriate service pricing, transparent revenue collection and sound financial management could generate about $11.5 billion annually for Africa’s water sector.
He added that improving the mobilisation and use of domestic resources could generate an additional $17.5 billion.
“These figures show that while international cooperation remains important, external assistance represents only a small share of the financing required. This should remind us that the future of Africa’s water sector can, and should, also be financed by Africans themselves,” he said.
Rwanda’s Minister of Infrastructure, Murwanashyaka Damien, said water, sanitation and hygiene are not issues that concern one sector alone, but are fundamental to public health, economic development, climate resilience, urban development and human dignity.
“The issue is not simply about building more infrastructure. We must build reliable, affordable, safe and sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure that can continue to serve people while also contributing to our economic development,” he said.
The Government of Rwanda says it is implementing several projects aimed at addressing inadequate access to clean water. The projects are expected to increase the country’s water production capacity to 688,000 cubic metres per day by 2029, with the additional water expected to serve communities across the country.
The seventh Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey (EICV7) showed that access to improved water services in Rwanda increased to 90%, up from 87% in 2017.
