Due to the alarming water situation in Mauritius, the Central Water Authority (CWA) plans to channel water from the Mare Longue reservoir currently holding five million cubic metres of water to La Marie to be filtered and distributed.
This decision was stated in a press meet at the CWA headquarters in St Paul on Wednesday, where concerned stakeholders including the CWA, Water Resources Unit and the Mauritius Meteorological Station were present.
“Water at Mare Longue reservoir is reserved for irrigation purposes but because of the drought we had not used this water. We have already launched a tender for the construction of the pipe to channel this water, at a cost of Rs 90 million. This should be ready by November and 20,000 cubic metres of water will be transferred daily,” said Meghduth Chumroo, acting chairman of the CWA.
According to the CWA, another way to reinforce this situation is to have recourse to mobile pressure filters.
“We have already purchased five mobile pressure filters which we will be able to carry with us wherever we go and extract water and filter,” he added .
Apart from this, the CWA has decided to take urgent action in order to be able to manage water distribution in an optimal way to satisfy the needs of the population.
Chumroo stated that starting next week areas being supplied by Mare aux Vacoas will be entitled to water only once daily.
As of April 27, Mare aux Vacoas was filled at only 43.1 per cent.
Meanwhile, the acting deputy director of Mauritius Meteorological Services, Rajan Mungra explained that apart from the central plateau, the entire island received significant rainfall during summer.
He also added that the station is preparing its ‘provisional’ long term report for winter and Mauritius is expected to have normal rainfall in winter.