959 homes affected during Fuvammulah flooding

Shifaq Mufeed, Member of Parliament for Central Fuvammulah Constituency, has said today that some 959 residential buildings were affected to varying degrees by the floods caused by heavy rain in the island on the 6th of this November.

Shifaq spoke to the media in a meeting held at the office of Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), to which he belongs. He said that 52 per cent of the households were hit in one way or other by the floods.

“According to records, people live in some 1857 houses in Fuvammulah. Out of them, 959 houses experienced the floods to varying extents. It means that some 52 per cent of the households were affected by the floods”, said Shifaq.

Shifaq noted that the biggest challenge on the wake of the floods is that toilets and water wells could not now be used. He said that toilets and water wells in some 322 households have become totally unusable, according to the information provided by the Island Councils.

Shifaq also noted that the infrastructure and mechanism built to manage floods were not fully functional, resulting in poor handling of the issue. He also said that the design of the Airport runway also contributed to the deterioration of the situation during the floods.

According to Shifaq, the most severely hit area is where government offices and other important public facilities are located.

Shifaq said that the total losses to the public as a result of the floods would be counted in millions.

“It is not flats that we need right now. We need a sewerage system for the island. I urge the government in my capacity as a Member of Parliament representing the people of Fuvammulah, as well as in my capacity as an ordinary citizen belonging to the island, to build a sewerage system in Fuvammulah as soon as possible”, said Shifaq.