Maldives president admits no backup plan for water crisis, thanks donor countries

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen has acknowledged his capital's water crisis was caused by lack of preparedness but insisted his government has done well to bring the situation under control, local media reported on Monday.

President Abdulla Yameen spoke to the public for the first time on Sunday regarding the Mal water crisis, saying that there could have been no fall back plan for such a crisis.

"We did not have any fall back plan for any disaster of this magnitude. However, we have done extremely hard work to try and bring the situation back to normal,"said the president.

He acknowledged the extremely low odds of such an incident occurring had prevented the state-owned Mal Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) from making plans to deal with the current situation.

Yameen said that five of the nine panel boards at the MWSC had now been fully repaired, estimating that the full effort would cost 20 million US dollars, which is currently being raised by the government.

China on Sunday donated 500,000 US dollars to the effort.

The Maldives' capital was plunged into crisis last Thursday as a fire at MWSC gutted the desalination plant, leaving 130,000 people without running water, leading to the dwindling of bottle drinking water. "I am not trying to make any excuses for the disaster at MWSC but the company was formed in the early 1980s. The design of the company and the water demand have changed with the population increase in Male." "There should be no difficulties with obtaining drinking water. However, there are problems with getting water for washing up and cleaning for people in high rise buildings,"said Yameen.

Large amounts of fresh water have been supplied by China, India and Sri Lanka, who were thanked by the president. "I would like to point out, many nations are aiding the country in this heart wrenching time."

"The government will look into various ways to prevent such an occurrence maybe by dividing up the water grid by wards."

Meanwhile, members of the task force have told local media that the problem could not be fixed within a"politically desirable" timeframe.

In an interview with local media outlet Haveeru, Minister of Defence Mohamed Nazim said that it would take two weeks to completely recover from the crisis, saying that 50 percent of this would be achieved by the end of the week.

The 130,000 residents of Mal consume around 14,000 metric tonnes of water a day, with the fully functioning plant able to produce around 20,000 tonnes.

The Maldives National Defence Force, working alongside volunteers from the public and civil society, continues to distribute water brought from abroad and from desalination plants on nearby islands.

Bangladesh became the latest country to announce it would send naval vessels with fresh water and desalination capacity, following the arrival of two Indian ships as well as the expected arrival of the Chinese navy.

China has also airlifted water on commercial flights heading to Male and has pledged to continue assistance till the issue is fully resolved.