Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda
Senior 2 · Geography and Environment
Rural and Urban Settlement in Rwanda
Lesson 2 of 4
18 min
If you live in rural Rwanda, you probably live in an umudugudu (plural imidugudu), a village. The word names both the smallest administrative unit and a planned, clustered settlement. Grouping homes changed how rural Rwanda looks and how services reach people. Examiners regularly ask you to weigh up its advantages and disadvantages.
In December 1996 the government launched a policy to group rural households, which had lived in scattered homesteads, into planned villages. There are now more than 14,000 imidugudu. Each is also the smallest unit of local administration, often with around a hundred families. Aims of the policy:
Suppose 100 households are scattered along a hillside, and serving them with water needs 10 km of pipe. Grouped in a village, the same households need only 2 km. If pipe costs 5,000 Frw per metre, how much does grouping save?
The figures are illustrative, but the principle is real: clustering spreads the cost of every pipe, cable and road over more users.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Services (water, electricity, schools, clinics) are cheaper and easier to provide | Some farmers live far from their fields and walk long distances daily |
| More land is left free for farming and land consolidation | Less space around each house for animals, kitchen gardens and manure |
| Easier administration, security and community mobilisation | In the early years some families were moved unwillingly, and support varied a lot from area to area |
| Families moved away from landslide and flood zones | Crowding can increase pressure on sanitation and the spread of disease if not well planned |
| Trading centres and small businesses grow where people cluster | Building new houses is costly for poor households |
Tip
Exam technique. "Assess the imidugudu policy" needs both columns and a judgement. A strong conclusion: "Imidugudu have made services cheaper to deliver and saved farmland, but they work best when villages are built close to farmland and include space for livestock and gardens."
Solution: a village: both a planned, clustered rural settlement and the smallest administrative unit in Rwanda.
Solution: to save farmland and to make services cheaper to provide (also resettling returnees, moving people from high-risk zones).
Solution: long distances to fields and little space for animals or manure near the house.
Solution: saving = 21 million; 21 ÷ 30 × 100 = 70%.
Summary
Sources and credits
The worked example, the advantages and disadvantages table and the practice items are written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
