"We Christians see it as one way of saying, 'We are sorry,'" said Kolini, referring to the water project in the Gatore sector of Rwanda's eastern district of Kirehe. The scheme was inaugurated on March 19 by the Rev. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and president of Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa.

"This project signifies more than bringing water to those who lacked it before," said Sheikh Yussuf Bizuru, the grand imam of Rwanda's Eastern Province. "It offers to the rest of Africa and the world a model of harmonious interfaith cooperation for development."

In the past, Muslims were often excluded from education and government jobs since they had no place in the majority Roman Catholic Church, which exercised great influence in Rwanda. As a result, Muslims were largely confined to engaging in minor trade. This meant they were also held in low regard, because traders are not highly valued while farmers are.

"Religion is supposed to be a uniting tool. That's the challenge we had to face. Now we understand we can work together," Kolini told Ecumenical News International.

Switzerland-based Nestlé SA, the world's biggest food and beverage company, provided funds for the project, which was supervised by Rwanda's faith leaders, under the auspices of the Interfaith Commission of Rwanda.

The district of Kirehe is rich in water resources ranging from rivers and springs to swamps, wetlands and lakes, according to the LWF. The most common sources of domestic water supply are streams and mountain springs, many of which are currently unprotected and poorly accessible to the local population.

Kolini, who heads the Anglican Church in Rwanda, said he hoped the project would strengthen reconciliation efforts in a country where an estimated 800,000 people were killed in 1994 when members of the country's majority Hutu tribe slaughtered minority Tutsis and Hutus seen as accommodating to Tutsis.

"We could not go out and talk about reconciliation when we were still fighting amongst ourselves," Kolini said.

Between 4.6 and 15 percent of Rwanda's 9.9 million people are estimated to be Muslims. Many reports, however, have pointed to an increase in conversions to Islam in the years following the genocide.

The interfaith water project serves an estimated 21,600 people with filtered clean water collected in concrete reservoirs, and distributed through 39 kilometers (24 miles) of pipelines and at 156 water points.