Maldives Country Paper - SACOSAN

7th South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN VII)
             10 -13 April 2018, Islamabad, Pakistan

               Maldives Country Paper

                          Mohamed Musthafa
                 Ministry of Environment and Energy

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Introduction
The Maldives is an archipelago formed into
coral atolls scattered between 7° 6’ 35” N to
0° 42’ 24” S. The Maldives consists of about
1,192 small, low-lying coral islands which are
grouped into 26 natural atolls, stretching over
860 km from north to south and 80 to 120 km
from east to west. The elevation from MSL is
1.5 m and the highest natural point from MSL
is 2 m.   The Maldives enjoys a warm and
humid tropical climate, with the weather
mainly being dominated by two monsoon periods: the southwest monsoon (the wet season, from
May to November); and the northeast monsoon (the dry period, from January to March). Annual
rainfall over the country varies between 1779 - 2218 mm per year, while average temperatures
range from 25° C to 31° C. The population is 350,759 (2015 Census.). Life expectancy is at 73.8
years with infant mortality 9 per 1000 live births.

As a Small Island Developing State, the Maldives faces significant economic, social and
environmental challenges exacerbated by the impacts from climate change, vulnerability and
high costs associated with the nature of SIDS. Despite challenges, the country has made
substantial progress in eradicating poverty, achieving universal education and healthcare and
providing access to safe water and improved sanitation.

Policy and Strategies

In an effort to accelerate the provision of water supply and sewerage services, the Government of
Maldives has given strong emphasis in institutional reforms in the water supply and sanitation
sector. The new National Water and Sewerage Policy (NWSP) structured on nine policy goals
adopted in August 2017 is one of the key achievements in the sector reform. Water and
Sewerage Act and subsequent regulations are also in the process of finalization. The NWSP with
the sector vision is to develop, manage and ensure access to appropriate, sustainable, safe water

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supply and sewerage facilities for all. The policy is
based on a holistic and sustainable approach to the
management of water resources, sector development,
and provision of water supply and sewerage services,
while concurrently encouraging maximum participation
of the stakeholders.

The NWSP aims to bring private sector and the general
public together in managing, conserving, and protecting
the valuable water resources in order to satisfy our
present needs as well as those of the future generations.
The NWSP document is aligned with the Article 22:
protection of the environment and 23: economic and
social rights of the Constitution of Maldives and is
consistent with the global and regional consensus embodied in Goal 6 of UN 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and other regional commitments.

The policy proposes to adopt financially, technically and environmentally sustainable approaches
to establish and deliver water and sewerage services for all. It also aims to achieve Sustainable
Development Goal 6: Ensure Access to Clean Water and Sanitation for All. The nine policy
goals focus and give priority to ensuring access to safe water and sewerage services for all,
improve the sector through research, capacity building, and strengthening of the legal
framework. The policy goals also seek to increase private sector participation, create awareness,
protection and conservation, financial sustainability and develop appropriate water supply and
sewerage system infrastructure.

Institutional Arrangement

The water and sewerage sector governance until 2005 was mandated at Ministry of Health
regulated by Maldives Water and Sanitation Authority (MWSA). The water and sewerage
mandate between 2005 and 2008 was at Ministry of Environment Energy and Water (MEEW)
regulated by MWSA, which in 2009 changed into Ministry of Housing Transport and
Environment (MHTE) regulated by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

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In 2012 MHTE was split into Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure (MHI) and Ministry of
Environment and Energy (MEE). Water and Sanitation Department (WSD) formed within the
Ministry of Environment and Energy has been key department responsible for the water and
sanitation. It is responsible to build water and sanitation infrastructure in islands across the
country along with formulation of policies, regulations, and standards related to water and
sanitation sector governance.

Water supply, sewerage system design, implementation of tariff and monitoring are the
responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

EPA is functioning as a semi-autonomous institute under MEE. There are three water and
sewerage utility companies namely Male’ Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC), Fenaka
Cooperation (FENAKA) and State Electric Company (STELCO) in the country that provides
water and sewerage services in the islands.

In order for improving and enhancing sector governance Water and Sewerage Act along with
subsequent regulations are in the process of its finalization.

Capacity Development
Sector based skill and capacity development has been a challenge due to lack of sector focused
opportunities and resources. The sector as a whole is weak in terms of technical capacity in
building infrastructure and to sustain the services, hence is subjected to depend on foreign
engineers and contractors. As institutional and human resource capacity building greatly
contributes to the improvement of building water supply and sewerage infrastructure and
sustainable service delivery, strong emphasis is given in the new policy for institutional
strengthening and capacity building. Tailor made training programs are being conducted for
island based utility outlets for proper operation and maintenance of water supply and sewerage
systems.

Monitoring

Monitoring mechanism still remains weak although it has been improving over the years. The
Department of National Planning is responsible for Census and other national statistics and

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provides the necessary information for all the sectors. There is no separate mechanism
established yet to monitor the progress in the sector.

The sector is collaborating with UN agencies, such as WHO, UNICEF and other relevant donors
to establish a national framework for the monitoring and planning of activities under the sector.
In this regard, the sector has coordinative efforts with the national SDG unit, to develop national
indicators to access the development and analyze the road map of the sector.

The sector envisions the establishment of a WASH (Water and Sanitation Hygiene)
Geographical Information System (GIS). Some preliminary works such as development of the
framework for data entry has been established, which will incorporate all relevant water and
sanitation data from the islands into one platform. The GIS system will help the sector in
visualizing, questioning, analyzing, interpreting, and understanding data to reveal relationships,
patterns, and trends in water and sewerage.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Maldives is the regulator and enforcement authority
for standards and regulations of water and sewerage facilities and services in Maldives, however
due to non-existence of a legal framework; the sector faces a huge challenge in the enforcement
and monitoring the procedures through legal jurisdiction. Water and Sanitation Act has been
drafted and is in the process of finalization by the Attorney General’s Office to be set for agenda
in the Parliament for discussion and approval for enactment.

Financing

The provision of water and sewerage facilities to the islands of Maldives has been a costly
commodity, due to the disperse nature of the archipelago and the high cost of construction,
followed by the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure. The average cost of developing
water supply and sewerage facility in an isolated island with population size 1500- 2000 is at
USD4.5 million. The sector has seen massive progress since the beginning of 2014 in terms of
investing for water supply and sewerage infrastructure. The development of these infrastructures
mostly relies on external financing and from the national budget (public sector investment-PSIP),
loans, grants, and development assistance and private sector investments. Our development
partners including UNICEF, WHO, UNDP, UNEP and development banks/funds including IDB,

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OFID, Kuwait Fund, GCF, GEF and CCTF plays/played important role in the sector
development

Sanitation Sector Overview
The sanitation sector is arbitrarily divided into two segments namely the inhabited islands and
industrial sector. The capital of Maldives (Male City) is with island wide conventional sewerage
system that is operational since 1985. Island wide sewerage work in outer islands for the first
time has begun in early 90’s. The major industry where sanitation is widely covered is tourism
industry. In tourist resorts the resort developer build and operate sewerage and sanitation
facilities in each of the resort island on their own. Traditionally Maldivians used bush/beach for
their excreta discharge. A designated area in the backyard of the house is also used for shallow
burial of faeces.

Brief but unsuccessful trials of other systems including ash latrines and sealed pit toilets were
also constructed in the 1980s. Following the diarrheal epidemics in 1970’s and 1980’s, people
started in building water based onsite sanitation systems.

Until the introduction of small bore sewerage (simplified shallow gravity) systems in early 90’s
defecation on beach//bush has been widely practiced among island communities.

Sector Developments and Plans

The government of Maldives gives a high
priority to the well-being of its citizens.
Hence,     government     is   committed     in
improving access to safe water and sanitation
for all.

This sector has seen unprecedented level of
development in recent years. There were only
6 islands including capital city Male’ with
safe water supply system by end of 2013. The
number of islands with piped water supply

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has increased from 6 islands to 21 islands, further 25 islands expected to be completed soon. This
will increase the coverage of piped water supply systems from 25% percent to 65% percent of
the entire Maldivian population. Similar
achievements have also been made in the
sanitation sector, where we are targeting
to increase the coverage of adequate
sewerage systems from 37% of the
population to 76% of the population at
the end of 2018. To this regard, since
2013, the government has established
adequate      sewerage   networks   in   21
islands, with work ongoing in a further
44 islands.

In addition to the piped water supply
system, the Government of Maldives
initiated a special program in the year 2015 to upgrade community rainwater harvesting facilities
to address the drinking water shortage in the islands. On average 70 islands requested for water
every year in the last 6 years, with an average delivery of 4600 tons per year. With the new
governance structure put in place in 2016 and as a result of the ongoing development works the
number of islands requesting for water has significantly reduced to 31 islands with total of 1400
tons delivered.

The government aims to significantly minimize frequent water shortage in island communities
by the end of 2018. To achieve this target community rainwater harvesting facilities have been
completed in 29 islands and work in a further 61 islands are in progress. Additionally, water
desalination plants and storage facilities are being developed in 19 islands. Access to affordable
clean water to all has been further ensured through introduction of a common water tariff for all
domestic consumers across the nation starting from January 2018.

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Gaps and Challenges

    •   Geography is characterized by small and scattered islands which make it difficult to
        provide, monitor and manage services effectively.
    •   Limited technical expertise to manage and implement sector programs and projects
    •   Existing financial resources are insufficient to meet the target of ensuring that all densely
        populated and development focused islands have adequate supplementary water sources
        and sewerage systems.
    •   Sanitation technologies that will provide sustainable protection of groundwater are costly
        and this is limiting their applications in small islands where the groundwater table is high.
    •   In many islands, extraction of groundwater exceeds the sustainable yield, which is
        accelerating saline water intrusion into freshwater aquifer.
    •   The existing cost-recovery mechanisms do not ensure the sustainability of services in the
        outer islands. Where desalination plants are provided, the high costs of producing safe
        water prevent full cost-recovery, thus requiring government subsidies.
    •   Lack of stakeholder participation in the design and monitoring of water and sewerage
        systems
    •   Limited water resources. There are practically no surface water sources. Rainwater and
        groundwater is the only conventional resources available and desalinated water and
        bottled water available as non-conventional sources
    •   Lack of capacity to respond in an emergency and in mitigating the impacts of climate
        change (water shortages during dry periods).
    •   Lack of capacity (financial, technical and human) in the private sector for a solid
        engagement in public-private partnership for the provision and management of water and
        sanitation services

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