Water service remains down in populous Addu

Water remains out in the interconnected islands of Addu, as the residents of the populous city mark the third day since water supply services went down.

Many Addu residents have taken to social media to express their discontent over the situation.

Addu Meedhoo MP Rozaina Adam criticized the government, which she said was not taking the situation seriously, adding that neglect of Addu was “nothing new to you.”

She implored the government to resolve the issue as soon as possible, stressing that the people were living in extremely difficult conditions.

Ballavaa Raees @MMuizzu Addu ah adhives fen nulibey. Kihaa dhera kamehtho mee. Manikfaanah ihusaas kureveytho fenaa nulaa bayaku mihaa iru dhiri ulhen jehuneema vaane undhagoothah! Sarukaarah mikan nuvey dhehtho kamakah. Addu ah ihumaalu vumakee thibeyfulhunnah aadhaige kameh!

— ???????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????? (@Roxeyna) December 9, 2023

Water supply services to Addu are provided by the state utility company, Fenaka Corporation.

The water services to the interconnected islands of Addu went out on Thursday afternoon.

Fenaka said on Friday that the outage resulted from damage to a VFD drive in the RO plant. It said a new one was brought in from Male’ and installed at the plant on Friday night.

In a statement just after midnight, Fenaka said that it was reconfiguring the control cable and reprograming the system, and promised that water services would be restored “in one hour.”

Addu councilman Ahmed Saeed confirmed on Saturday afternoon that water supply remains down.

He said that many of the residents were using either mineral water or groundwater for their needs.

Addu is the most populous city in the Maldives after Male’ City, with some 12,000 residents – many of whom live in the interconnected islands.