Comment: Living with Water

Today, 5^th June is World Environment Day, a day celebrated every year around the world to encourage awareness and action for the environment. This year’s theme, “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care”, highlights the global citizen’s responsibility towards sustainable living as a way of securing our future; one that is extremely vulnerable for the Maldives, a country often considered Ground Zero for Climate Change, due to the challenges surrounding the element of water alone.

I had only been in the Maldives for 2 months at the time when the “Malé Water Crisis” occurred in mid-December last year. An electric fire at the only water treatment plant in Malé caused an almost complete disruption to the water supply in the capital for about four days. The 133,000 residents of Malé had their first experience of what it means to be taken away the access to one of the basic necessities of life, even if for only a few hours per day. In Malé there was a feeling of panic and worry as people feared violent outbreaks if water became too scarce. Mockingly came the rain, which many believed was a blessing, but this was soon replaced with frustration as the people were ill-prepared to collect the rain water.

The experience was truly an eye-opener for myself as a newcomer to the Maldives. It highlighted how vulnerable the country is to any type of man-made or natural disasters. In stark contrast to my last post in Nepal, a mountainous land-locked country, I had a lot to learn about the true challenges facing this small island nation.