Hulhumalé hospital flooded after heavy rainfall

The Hulhumalé hospital’s x-ray room, laboratory and reception area were flooded after a heavy downpour last night.

The hospital’s director, Ahmed Shakir, told The Maldives Independent that rain water seeped in through a gap in the hospital building.

“The way the hospital is built there is an open area of about 30 feet. The roof spills water on to the area when it rains heavily. If the water cannot drain it seeps inside the hospital. The water had seeped in under the doors,” Shakir said.

Shakir also denied some media reports that documents had been destroyed by flooding. Water had seeped into a storage facility and some of books at the bottom of boxes left on the ground were a little wet, he said, but the damage was minimal.

The flooding did not disrupt the hospital’s operations, Shakir said, adding that the water was cleaned out last night.

On August 11, tidal swells hit the eastern waterfront of Malé, flooding the outer road and cafés and restaurants in the carnival area with water up to one and a half feet.

The following day, a man was injured by a lightning strike at sea while the met office issued a white alert for central and southern atolls.

Heavy thunderstorms in the capital on Monday morning meanwhile flooded Malé’s roads and the government-run Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital whilst a roof caved in at a primary school.

The flooding prompted environmentalists to call on the government to urgently install proper drainage and flood prevention systems, noting that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will only increase with climate change.