Asian neighbours respond to Maldives water crisis

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vulnerability of ever-growing populations in isolated regions was exposed at the weekend by an accident that left Malé, capital of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, with scarcely any fresh water.
Neighbouring India responded to urgent pleas from help from Malé and has begun sending hundreds of tonnes of drinking water by military transport aircraft and by ship to supply the densely populated atoll where the city lies. China and Sri Lanka quickly followed suit.

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when a fire damaged cables and controls at Malé’s only desalination facility, leaving more than 100,000 inhabitants without water.
Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen, who was obliged to return home from a private visit to Malaysia, urged people to remain “patient and united, while working with the government to resolve the national crisis brought on by the fire that broke out at the Maldives Water and Sewerage Company”.
The Maldives, a group of more than 1,000 islands and islets southwest of Sri Lanka and India, has become famous as a luxury tourist destination and scuba-diving centre since the 1970s, and tourism accounts for about a third of gross domestic product.
But the islands and coral reefs — on average the land is just 1.5m above sea level — are vulnerable to climate change and dependent on imported resources such as food and water. The mostly Muslim population has been growing fast and already exceeds 300,000.
In 2009, Mohammed Nasheed, then president, held an underwater cabinet meeting in scuba gear to publicise the dangers of global warning and rising sea-levels to his low-lying country — already the smallest in Asia by land area.
Like many cities in the Gulf states of the Arabian Desert, Malé makes its water supplies through a costly and energy-intensive process of heating seawater and distilling fresh water from it. Another, increasingly competitive method of desalination is to force water through a membrane in reverse osmosis plants.
The Maldives’ Asian neighbours competed to show their support for the beleaguered city. Narendra Modi, Indian prime minister, said his country stood “shoulder to shoulder” with the Maldives, as the Indian Air Force shuttled tonnes of bottles of drinking water to the country’s airport.

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India also sent navy ships with fresh water supplies and reverse osmosis equipment to the islands.
China, which is competing with India for influence in the Indian Ocean, said on Sunday that it was sending a military vessel with 960 tonnes of water and had sent 20 tonnes of bottled water on two civilian flights on Saturday.
According to local media in Malé, the government has set up water distribution centres at schools and other public buildings. Large queues formed as people waited to receive two 1.5 litre bottles of drinking water per person.
Maldivian Democracy Network, a human rights group, expressed concern about possible discrimination against illegal immigrants such as Bangladeshis in the water handouts, and also criticised the government’s preparedness, calling for it to learn the lessons of the accident and “come up with a back-up plan for Malé and other islands”.

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