Rwanda Water and Forests Authority (RWFA) gathered information from 50 000 Ha of areas severely affected by soil erosion which will be the focus of different projects during the 2018-19 national budget.
RWFA through Water For Growth Rwanda is also training the district staff from Western Province to use the systems to fight soil erosion. The trainings are talking place at INES-Ruhengeri University, in Musanze District and City of Kigali.
The Ministry of Environment urges all the districts to submit a report based on GIS information on the planned areas and where erosion has been combated.
Participants in the training from both Kigali City and Musanze District are required to be aware of the new system and use information provided by GIS and GPS to know where they should focus in fighting erosion.
Ancille Musabyemariya, Land Surveyor and GIS Officer in Nyamasheke District and Jacques Ndikubwimana who is in charge of forests and natural resources in Rubavu District who are among the trainees in Musanze District both observe that this technology will show on maps where erosion will be combated which will help in giving accurate figures and ultimately the right budgeting equivalent.
“Before this technology, we used to fight erosion based on an estimated area of land. This GIS technology will help us implement the measures we took for fighting against erosion in exactly a defined area and location of land,” she said.
Remy Ngoga Mugunga, the head of Water Resources Protection and Development at RWFA says that both GIS and GPS helped them in introducing CROM DSS (Catchment Restoration Opportunity Mapping Decision Support System).
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