Why Gashora
SAquaSolve's founder spent three years in Gashora as a GGAST boarding student — real history, relationships and field experience. Bugesera is a lake-rich district, but living beside water is not the same as having safe, dependable water to drink. Gashora is where SAquaSolve is developing its first community water system, drawing on Lake Mirayi.
Problem
Water present is not water safe
Bugesera has nine lakes, yet proximity is not access. The gap is safety, reliability, and dependable local service, not the absence of water.
Rwanda has made real progress on water access — EICV7 (2023/24) reports about 90% of households nationally use an improved drinking-water source. But an improved source and a safe, reliable drinking-water service are not the same thing.
UNICEF Rwanda reports that only 57% of the population can reach safe drinking water within a 30-minute round trip from home. Being near water, even a large lake, does not by itself close that gap.
Bugesera is home to nine lakes and three rivers, including Lake Mirayi in Gashora Sector — water is physically present. At the household level, 20.9% of Bugesera households report not using the drinking-water source they identify as nearest.
Among Bugesera households that avoid their nearest source, 65.7% say the reason is that it does not function properly. A water point that is broken or untrusted is not really access.
Rwanda's national monitoring programme tests water bodies for indicators including turbidity, fecal coliform and E. coli. Measuring Lake Mirayi's own condition directly is how SAquaSolve's treatment design gets calibrated.
In communities like Gashora, what is missing is not the water resource itself but the infrastructure needed to take that water, treat it, store it, distribute it, monitor it and maintain the service over time.
Progress
Completed, underway, next
What we've done
Community engagement & WASH workshops
Two-day WASH and community workshops in Gashora, with direct community input, delivered in partnership with Gashora Girls Academy of Science and Technology (GGAST), the confirmed workshop partner, funded by a $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grant administered through the University of Rochester.
Initial conceptual system layout
An initial conceptual system layout has been developed with engineering support: Lake Mirayi, solar-powered intake and pumping, raw-water conveyance, a containerized treatment plant, protected storage, and distribution to multiple community access points.
What's underway
Lake Mirayi water-quality characterization
Water-quality data collection has begun and laboratory characterization is in progress. Results are not yet complete.
Site and hydraulic assessment
Site assessment and hydraulic evaluation are underway alongside the laboratory work, informing intake location and system sizing.
Service-area mapping
Mapping of the communities and access points the system is intended to serve.
Nonprofit registration
SAquaSolve's nonprofit registration process in Rwanda is underway.
What comes next
Complete water-quality characterization
Finish Lake Mirayi laboratory characterization and establish a seasonal monitoring plan.
Finalize treatment selection & sizing
Select the specific treatment processes and equipment based on completed water-quality results, and size the system accordingly.
Advance the regulatory & permitting pathway
Continue institutional coordination with Bugesera District, the relevant water utility and responsible regulators toward the approvals required before construction.
System
What we're developing
This is the system architecture SAquaSolve is developing for Gashora. The specific treatment processes and equipment inside the plant will be selected based on Lake Mirayi water-quality results, site conditions and engineering analysis, rather than predetermined in advance.
Solar power is central to this concept for both intake pumping and treatment. Detailed array sizing, like final treatment selection, follows the engineering phase — it is not predetermined.
Gashora Sector, Bugesera
Where SAquaSolve's founder studied at GGAST, where Lake Mirayi sits, and the home of SAquaSolve's first implementation.
Requirements
What success will require
The Gashora system is progressing through water-quality characterization, engineering and technical development, institutional and approval pathways, partnership development, and capital planning. A detailed, quotation-backed construction budget follows once engineering, treatment selection and system sizing are far enough along to support one.
Laboratory testing and analysis of Lake Mirayi's water quality, the evidence base the rest of the system design follows.
Hydraulic, treatment, solar, storage, distribution, site and monitoring design, based on measured conditions rather than assumptions.
Coordination with Bugesera District, the relevant water utility and responsible regulators toward the approvals required before construction.
Building the technical, institutional and funding relationships the project needs to move from validation into construction.
Developing a detailed, quotation-backed construction budget once engineering, treatment selection and system sizing are far enough along to support one.
Partnership needs
At this stage, SAquaSolve needs more than funding. It is seeking technical expertise in water-treatment, hydraulic, civil, mechanical, electrical and solar engineering; institutional relationships and government or regulatory guidance; equipment and in-kind partners; operations and maintenance expertise; and strategic and catalytic funding partners who can help move the system from validation and engineering into construction and operation.
Regulatory coordination, planning alignment, infrastructure siting, and integration with district and national water-sector priorities.
Catalytic funding, project sponsorship, networks, and community-development expertise as the Gashora system moves toward construction.
Treatment, hydraulic, civil, mechanical, electrical, solar, monitoring and operations-and-maintenance expertise.
Evidence & learning
National figures establish patterns; Lake Mirayi's own condition is what SAquaSolve's technical phase measures directly. External, authoritative sources are kept separate from SAquaSolve's own documented progress.
External evidence
EICV7 (2023/24): about 90% of Rwandan households nationally use an improved drinking-water source, including 97% urban and 87% rural.
NISR, EICV7 2023/24, Utilities and Amenities Thematic ReportUNICEF Rwanda: 57% of the population accesses safe drinking water within a 30-minute round trip of home.
UNICEF RwandaBugesera is a lake-rich district — home to nine lakes and three rivers.
The New Times — Bugesera district profileIn EICV7, 20.9% of Bugesera households reported not using the drinking-water source they identified as nearest. Among that subgroup, 65.7% cited that it does not function properly.
NISR, EICV7 Utilities & Amenities — Table A.4Rwanda's national water-quality monitoring programme evaluates selected water bodies for indicators including turbidity, fecal coliform and E. coli. This is national monitoring context, not evidence of Lake Mirayi's present condition — which is why SAquaSolve tests the source directly.
Rwanda Water Resources Board — Water Quality Monitoring, Phase I & II Final Report (2019)What SAquaSolve has documented
Two-day WASH and community workshops completed
Delivered in Gashora with GGAST, the confirmed workshop partner, with direct community input, funded by the 2026 Davis Projects for Peace grant.
Lake Mirayi water-quality data collection underway
Laboratory characterization of the intended source is in progress. Results are not yet complete.
Initial conceptual system architecture developed
Developed with engineering support: source, solar-powered intake and pumping, conveyance, centralized treatment, protected storage, and distribution to multiple community access points.
SAquaSolve is not trying to replace Rwanda's existing water infrastructure. It aims to complement Rwanda's water-sector work and is pursuing the institutional coordination, regulatory guidance and approvals necessary to develop the Gashora system responsibly. Institutional coordination with Bugesera District, the relevant water utility and responsible regulators forms part of the project's development pathway, with all required approvals to be secured before construction.