Rainwater Harvesting Program – Maldives
This program is to address the issue of freshwater scarcity in The Republic of Maldives (Maldives). This will be achieved through the targeted provision of new, and the restoration of pre-existing, rainwater capture and storage systems in selected public locations within communities of Maldives.
The program will start with projects in four inhabited island communities, namely Kunahandhoo, Hithadhoo, Maamendhoo and Gaadhoo, in the remote Laamu Atoll, aka Hahdhunmathi Atoll.
The program is being implemented under the direction of Abram Le Cerf, Social and Environment Manager at Six Senses, Laamu. It is made possible through the generosity of The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust, an environmentally and socially conscious resort ownership and management company, and Positive H2O (+H2O), a company of dedicated professional windsurfers who have a passionate interest in the oceans and the environment.
Maldives, being an atoll nation consisting of one percent land and 99 percent ocean, is a country with very little in terms of freshwater resources. Consequently, accessing sanitary and sustainable fresh drinking water is a major challenge faced by the inhabitants of the rural communities of Maldives.
The islands of Kunahandhoo, Hithadhoo, Maamendhoo and Gaadhoo are inhabited by total populations of 783, 1040, 1186 and 417 individuals, respectively. Consequently, the total number of direct beneficiaries of the first phase of this project is 3,426 persons.
To confound matters, as a country which is situated entirely within the tropics, Maldives’ climate is characterized by two distinct annual monsoons, with vastly different rainfall patterns, the southwest monsoon and the northeast monsoon. Accordingly, although during the southwest monsoon, spanning from May to October, rainfall is at its highest, during the northeast monsoon, extending from November to April, dry and hot conditions prevail. Consequently, during the northeast monsoon the communities of Kunahandhoo, Hithadhoo, Maamendhoo and Gaadhoo experience significant water shortages.
Due to the scarcity of available groundwater and surface water within these communities, and the high economic and environmental cost of desalinating seawater, rainwater capture and storage is a key strategy for securing freshwater to support their populations. Indeed, throughout Maldives, in line with relative public policy, multiple public and voluntary sector programs have previously been carried out to distribute and establish rainwater capture and storage tanks in all of the nation’s 200 inhabited islands. However, freshwater shortages still remain.
Within Hithadhoo, Maamendhoo and Gaadhoo public rainwater tank systems that have been previously established have become degraded and damaged and are either completely dysfunctional or are functioning at only partial capacity, further confounding water shortage problems during the northeast monsoon.
The first phase of this program is being initiated with the Kunahandhoo Island Rainwater Harvesting Project – Maldives, and will proceed to the other three islands. Upon proven success, it will be expanded to additional islands, in an effort to have a widespread impact on the water supply problems facing the Maldives.
The projects on the first four islands of the program have been fully funded by the SLOW LIFE Foundation and Positive H2O. If you wish to contribute to the expansion of the Rainwater Harvesting Program – Maldives to other islands, please click on the Donate button below.