Case study 1; Water Management in the Maldives

The Maldives a Luxury resort in Water crisis

Image taken from;

National Geographic, (2015). Top 10 Beaches - Travel - National Geographic. [online] Available at: http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/beaches/ [Accessed 6 May 2015].

The Republic of Maldives is a chain of 1900 small coral islands grouped into 26 atolls located South West of India (Ibrahim et al, 2002). Amongst these only 200 are inhabited and 87 used for resorts (Ibrahim et al, 2002).

Image showing a satellite image of the Republic of Maldives. Taken from;

Istanbul-visit.com, (2015). Maldives Map and Maldives Satellite Images. [online] Available at: http://www.istanbul-visit.com/en/maldives-map.asp [Accessed 6 May 2015].

The Maldives has a population of 345,023 and about a quarter of these live on the main island of Male (World Bank, 2015).  Maldivian's rely on rainwater collection for drinking water and groundwater for domestic uses (Ibrahim, 2002). Traditional rain water comes from well's however Bell 1883 declared wells unsafe due to poor sanitation. Policy on the islands is that 10 litres of water per day per person is met (Health Master Plan, 1996-2005). 

Rainwater is collected in tanks made of steel , ferro cement and high density polythene which the Ministry of Health have helped to supply (Ibrahim, 2002).

Example of rainwater storage in tourist resorts. 

Image taken from ;Rhinotanks.com.au, (2015). Rhinex :: Water Catchment Calculator. [online] Available at: http://www.rhinotanks.com.au/rhinex/index.php/catchment_calculator/ [Accessed 6 May 2015].

A mass amount of Tourism in the Maldives is because of underwater reefs and shallow water lagoons, sandy beaches and rich island vegetation (Kunder et al, 2013).

In Kadholhudhoo and Male the fresh water lens has become polluted by poor sanitation facilities creating a greater push for other methods such as Desalination plants which have been invested in throughout the Maldives mostly located on resort islands (Ibrahim, 2002). Tourist islands use desalinised water for domestic uses and bottled water for consumption (Ibrahim, 2002). A very small percentage of islands discharge sewage into the sea, this can mean that there may be contamination of  bathing waters. Most resorts pump sewage into septic tanks and the effluent is treat using natural processes and soil absorption (Kunder, 2013).

References:

Kunder, S. and Murthy, K. (2015). Environmental Impacts of Tourism and Management in Maldives. International journal of environmental science, 2(1). 

Data.worldbank.org,(2015).Maldives|Data.[online]Availableat: http://data.worldbank.org/country/maldives [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Ibrahim, S., Bari, M. and Miles, L. (2015). Water resources management in Maldives with an emphasis on desalination. Maldives water and Sanitation Authority, 1(1).