The City of Kigali has ordered former occupants of Gikondo industrial zone to remove all their machinery, old cars, and heavy steel and other materials they left behind when they vacated the wetland within seven days or risk losing them.
"In order to respect and implement guidelines related to wetlands conservation, especially those abandoned by former occupants, we remind them to remove all left materials such as machinery, old cars, old steel and others from the Gikondo Industrial Zone within seven days," he said.
"The equipment that will have not been removed from wetlands by the established deadline will be auctioned,"
The City of Kigali is developing a Rwf600 million project at the Gikondo Industrial Park, which includes establishing gardens with green lawns, indigenous tree species and refreshment facilities.
Juliet Kabera, the Director-General of Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), explained that Gikondo wetland is part of other wetlands reserved for recreation, adding that a study is underway to determine how to restore the degraded wetlands.
REMA says that funding from Global Environment Facility (GEF) through World Bank will help restore degraded wetlands in the City of Kigali.
