Malé, Maldives – The Capital city of Maldive, Malé, is experiencing heavy rainfall and flooding on the roads with the Maldives Meteorological Service issuing yellow alert for the area today.
While photographs and videos of the roads flooding have circulated on social media, the incumbent Malé Mayor and former Infrastructure Minister Mohamed Muizzu has demanded the Maldives Water and Sewerage Company to handover the storm water pumps to the city council.
In response, MWSC has stated that the pumps of Male’ storm water system are well maintained and operated. Pumps are regularly serviced, and they are fully functional. The system is designed to pump out flood water within two to three hours after a continuous heavy rain fall.
The Managing Director of MWSC has also addressed the issue stating that the drainage issue is due to inadequate design. He stated that the pumps are inadequately small in size to manage storm drainage issues and must be upgraded.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Maldives Parliament Mohamed Nasheed highlighted that this is possibly a foretaste of the weather to come in our changing climate.
Male’ area witnessed 134.7mm of rain during the past 24 hours — the 3rd wettest day this decade. The wettest day on record was in 1977 when 175.9mm fell during a 24hr period.
