Water
Main Sources of Water
- Ground water
- Rainwater
- Desalinated water
- Imported bottled water
In the Maldives the conventional water is limited to groundwater and rainwater. Maldives does not have surface water resources such as rivers, natural/man-made lakes and streams. Rainfall is the primary source which is captured directly using rainwater catchments and stored in rainwater tanks or infiltrated into the ground and stored in an aquifer. Both these sources are used in the Maldives as freshwater sources. Groundwater has been the traditional source of potable water until recently. Today, on most densely populated islands, groundwater is highly polluted.
Water and Climate Change
It is anticipated that climate change will affect the availability of freshwater resources through changes in rainfall distribution, soil moisture, glacier and ice/snow melt and river and groundwater flows.
Climate change will have severe impacts on water resources and freshwater availability in the Maldives due to inundation of land, saltwater intrusion, change in rainfall patterns, and increase in frequency of extreme events such as the El Nino/Southern Oscillation.
The possible salt water intrusion from sea level rise may affect the thickness of fresh groundwater aquifers by reducing the volume and quality of groundwater. In addition, the elevation of groundwater salinity could be increased due to storm surges. Groundwater lens in islands also get further deteriorated due to sewage spills which reduces the groundwater recharge.
References
MEE. (2017). State of the Environment 2016, Ministry of Environment and Energy.