Nearly 60 islands hit with water crisis
08 Apr 2012, 7:32 PM
Hawwa Lubna
Aishath Haseena* and her sisters, clutching empty bottles, rushed to the water tank near the mosque as soon as the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officials finished re-filling the tank. It had been empty for over two weeks.
“Water tanks in almost all the houses are empty now. So everyone started to collect water from the public tanks. But, two weeks back, the public tanks also ran out of water,” Haseena, a resident of Hithadhoo in Addu Atoll, told Minivan News today.
While 90 percent of the atoll’s population depend on rain water – often collected in household water tanks as a principal source of water – the reduced rainfall during the dry season (January-June) leaves several islands across Maldives in a severe annual water crisis.
According to the National Disaster Management Center (NDMC), so far this year 58 islands have reported water shortages and asked for emergency water supplies.
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