Maldives’ capital sieged by severe water crisis

When a country in the middle of an ocean faces a water crisis, it is more tragic than ironic. An event like this jolts our attention to the essential needs of life. For the people of Malé – an island and the capital of Maldives – it was a fire event on December 5th at their sole water treatment/desalination plant causing it to cease operations and cutting off tap water supply.

Over 120,000 residents were affected. Help has poured in from India, Bangladesh, China, and other countries either in the form of bottled water airlifted/sent via navy vessels or portable desalination units made available to treat water and distribute it for free amongst the population. About a fourth of the population moved to nearby islands. The government estimates that repairing the plant will cost over $20 million which will make a significant dent in the country’s budget. Monetary donations, however, are flowing in (China donated half a million and an anonymous Saudi Arabian businessman donated a million dollars) to their recently created Water Crisis Management Fund. 

Latest reports suggest the ‘worst is over’ primarily due to the timely foreign help that has flown in. The news agencies are currently silent on the Maldives crisis and perhaps one can speculate that things are getting back on track.

‘Out of sight, out of mind’ isn’t just a phrase insecure partners use to chide when their partner is leaving town. It is also representative of our overwhelming reliance on these life-saving technologies that treat drinking water. It calls for better cognizance of disaster resilience by governments and think-tanks especially at a time when we as a civilization are threatened by environmental challenges like climate change. A country like Maldives is an even brighter red flag since rising sea levels will affect such low-lying countries first.

Maldives is primarily a tourist destination and what is ironic is that most tourists are unaffected since expensive hotels and resorts own desalination plants while the general population just stopped getting their drinking water from their tap.

Information sourced from Reuters, The Daily Mail, The Economic Times, and VICE News.