Water delivered to scuba haven Maldives

MALE, Maldives, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Emergency supplies of drinkable water have been sent to The Maldives, a scuba diving haven in the Indian Ocean, after its sole desalination plant caught fire.

The fire in the capital of Malé Thursday damaged the electrical system of the Malé Water and Sewerage Co., which supplies water to more than 100,000 residents of the islands, southwest of the Indian peninsula, and left them without drinking water, Indian government officials said.

The country's only drinkable water comes from the process of treating seawater.

"The only water available at Malé is stored in tanks and is being supplied for one hour every twelve hours," the Indian Defense Ministry said Friday in a statement. India has sent five transport planes filled with bottled water and has dispatched a ship with 35 tons of fresh water, and desalination equipment with the capability of making 20 tons of fresh water per day, aboard.

Free water will be available to Maldivian citizens, but activists said no provision for thousands of migrant workers on the islands, most from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, has been made.

The Maldive Islands are comprised of 1,190 coral islands, and depends on 750,000 tourists per year, mostly for scuba diving, for about 30 percent of its economy.