meeting, which he considered to be extremely important in view of the critical need to expand the LVWATSAN. The Minister appreciated the joint initiative, which promotes the sharing of experience and resources, and noted that Uganda has a good record in water resource management. He reiterated that Rwanda attached great importance to the meeting, and would benefit greatly from the joint mobilization of resources, and is looking forward for scaling up of the programme to cover Kigali, under the large towns initiative. Noting that Rwanda’s landscape consists of steep slopes, and thus prone to serious soil erosion to the River Kagera, and eventually to Lake Victoria, he expressed Rwanda’s commitment to ensure the programme is successful, and urged the EIB, UN-HABITAT, the EAC and other partners to hasten the start up of the phase II interventions. 20 Minister of Water, Environment, Urban and Land Use Planning expressed his appreciation to UN-HABITAT, EAC and the Government of Uganda for hosting the meeting and all the participants for attending this important
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meeting. He noted that the Initiative is timely for Burundi, which has just achieved a political settlement to civil conflict, and is turning its focus to development activities. The Minister expressed concern that as a result of the civil war, clean water and sanitation coverage in Burundi had dropped significantly over the years. The war had also caused many people to relocate to urban centres for relative security, thereby straining the already stretched resources in these centres. He expressed optimism that the second phase of the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative would address the basic aspirations and needs of the people, improve the access to water and sanitation, especially for poor urban populations, and help to protect the environment in Burundi. The Minister reaffirmed that the programme is in line with the water sector reforms being undertaken in Burundi. The reforms, funded by GTZ, focus on building capacity in water and sanitation, taking into account gender considerations, and ensuring sustainability.