Nadia Uwababyeyi treks for an hour to fetch clean water, a journey that requires her to travel about a kilometre back and forth to the nearest fountain tap.

The mother of three is forced to queue daily at the tap for at least 30 minutes.

“We can go for about four days, sometimes a week without water, and we are now used to it,” Uwababyeyi told Rwanda Today.

Other residents on the outskirts of Kigali get water through rationing programmes.

The blame is pinned on the huge difference between the supplied water and the demand among other factors.

According to official data, access to clean water within 200 metres in cities is around 87 percent, while overall in the country is about 76 percent, where people can access water within 500 meters.

Water and Sanitation Corporation indicates that at least 1.2 million Kigali residents are supplied with 105, 000 cubic metres daily against the demand of 140,000 cubic metres.

With the daily 35, 000 cubic metres of the gap in the city’s supplied water, hundreds of households rely on streams among other water bodies, while the water loss also plays its part as almost 38 percent of the treated water is lost before reaching the taps.

“We normally fetch water from Mpazi fountains, they are salty but we have no other choice,” Jerome Karekezi, a Gitega resident in Nyarugenge district.

The government suggests that by 2024 that most citizens in the city will be able to access water within a few metres as per the new master plan.

While residents in various regions of Kigali continue to demand that water distribution projects be expedited, the city water master plan that is currently in the final stages of preparation reveals that the city's residents have to wait for at least 30 years to universally be connected to piped water in their houses.

Methode Rutagungira, director of Urban Water Distribution, says the blueprint provides answers to the city and surrounding areas.

“The blueprint shows us what is needed to achieve this goal.

''The number of people will keep rising so the design will help us to know how much water is needed and where this water will come from,” said Rutagungira.

Nyaborongo and Akagera rivers are expected to be the water source with a contribution of 27 percent of the entire supply to Kigali by 2050.

“By 2024, 87 percent people in Kigali will have water in their compound, while the remaining 13 percent will be getting water from the communal taps.

''By 2030 we want everyone to have access to water within their compound, and this study will guide us,” he added.

The city of Kigali needs 140,000 cubic metres of water daily, and by 2030 there will be a need for 333,000 cubic metres, while by 2050 the demand will be more than a million cubic metres.

Tekemasa Mamiya, the team leader of the Japanese experts who crafted the mater plan, said no resident will be left without water.