Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service ) - The Italian Movimento per la Lotta contro la Fame nel Mondo in collaboration with Barnabite missionary Father Mario Falconi, has officially started a programme to supply electricity to the northern Rwanda district of Muhura, with a population of 40,000. The 30 K W medium tension electric line will travel 20 km from Ruzizi power station to Muhura region and reach the main town Mutara.
This part of Rwanda is a long way from the main roads. Before the war between Hutu and Tutsi, there were three projects for electricity lines coming from three different directions but it all remained on paper and war did not help these initiatives. With the post war the state began to encourage the boosting of infrastructures and services: roads, aqueducts, electricity lines, telephone lines. But funds are scarce and to find economic resources townships are forced to retain the wages of their employees and taxing commerce or animal property.
So MLFM had the idea of putting up 20.000 metres as the crow flies across a hilly region using 100 pylons supporting three medium tension cables plus a guard cable to protect the line from lightening. Along the way the electric lines distributes power to three other villages where there are small commercial activities which up to now functioned with engines fed by oil such as mills to grind millet, maize, manioc, presses for sunflower seed oil, small blacksmith workshops.
The main centre Muhura has two secondary schools, each with some 6000 boarding pupils where classes are held as long as there is day-light. The parish has offered the school the use a gas powered generator for two more hours of light. In Muhura sisters living near the parish have an important rural hospital with maternity, paediatrics, ophthalmology sectors, a children’s feeding centre and an adult dispensary at the moment all powered by generator. Lastly in programme are two “industrial” activities in the area: a coffee roasting factory for export coffee of which the region is a good producer, and a second to make Muhura the granary of Byumba prefecture. (AP) (1/7/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:33; Parole:447)
