As part of the ongoing FSM Action Research Project, supported by the Gates Foundation, Pit Vidura brought together Kigali’s sanitation actors — private service providers, regulators, utility, and city partners — for a stakeholder workshop to review an equipment rental model that would let providers hire portable emptying equipment rather than buy it.
Kigali has 21 licensed service providers, but only two currently serve hard-to-reach areas. Many are discouraged from expanding into these communities by the high cost of suitable equipment and the operational challenges of serving those communities. Which raises the question: what if operators could rent the right technology instead of buying it? Would that encourage them to extend their services?
Through the project, several portable emptying technologies (PuPu Pump, Pitvaq, and Gulper V4) have been tested in these areas to assess their effectiveness. Operators will now be able to rent these technologies at the lowest cost.
The goal is to address three structural challenges at once: lowering entry costs for new operators, expanding coverage to underserved areas, and proving that serving these communities can be commercially viable.

Throughout the workshop, stakeholders shared valuable feedback to refine the rental model and its management framework, which will be incorporated before roll-out.

Huge thanks to ASSERWA, City of Kigali, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA), and WASAC Group for the rich discussion.