15% Capacity Warning: Minister Predicts Disaster if Reservoir Levels Fall Further

On Tuesday 4th March, Minister Patrick Assirvaden sounded the alarm about the deteriorating water crisis in Mauritius. With reservoirs not even half full and an intensifying drought, the island nation is teetering on the brink of an unprecedented hydric disaster. As the government scrambles to avert catastrophe amid emergency measures and political sparring, the threat of widespread water shortages looms large.

Mauritius is at the mercy of a protracted dry spell, with potable water growing increasingly scarce.

Assirvaden issued a stark warning: should reservoir levels plummet below 15% of their capacity, “we will have to stop the pumping”.

In other words, if the reserves drop beneath this critical threshold, the water will become unusable.

This grave declaration came in response to a Private Notice Question (PNQ) posed by opposition leader Joe Lesjongard during the National Assembly on March 4, 2025.

Lesjongard sought to know what actions the government was taking to prevent the population from running dry.

Figures presented by the Central Water Authority (CWA) and relayed by Assirvaden revealed a stark reality: as of March 4, the total water volume stored in the island’s seven main reservoirs stood at a mere 37.81 million cubic metres—just 41% of their total capacity.

Amid this worrying statistic, the Minister noted a drop in surface water production of 17.34%, while groundwater production plummeted by 20.85%, exacerbating the supply crisis.

Potable Water

Consequently, daily potable water production has dwindled from 1,068,267 cubic metres to just 865,061 cubic metres.

Highlighting the gravity of the situation, Assirvaden reminded the Assembly that Mauritius has weathered three spells of prolonged drought in the last five years: 2020-21, 2022-23, and now 2024-25. “July 2024 was the driest month in the past 120 years,” he lamented.

The present circumstances remain dire. While emergency measures have been implemented to mitigate the crisis, they do not address the fundamental issue of water access on the island.

“Without significant summer rains to replenish our reservoirs, we will be in a far more catastrophic situation by the end of April,” the Minister warned grimly.

“We are drilling wells to minimise damage,” he added.

In response to the escalating crisis, the government has intensified efforts to drill new wells. “Since January 2024, five new drillings have been carried out in Beard, Camp Levieux, Goodlands, Rampe Le Moirt, and Côte d’Or.

Two more have been completed in Constance La Gaité and Fond-du-Sac since December 2024,” the Minister reported.

These new extraction points have added 7,500 cubic metres of water per day to the distribution network, with one drilling currently underway in Mapou and five more planned in the coming months.

To ease the burden on the most vulnerable families, the government has enhanced its assistance programmes for water access.

“Since December 2024, 310 vulnerable families have benefitted from the grant programme for the purchase of water tanks,” Assirvaden noted.

This initiative, managed by the Development Bank of Mauritius, provides households earning less than Rs 60,000 per month with Rs 15,000 towards the purchase of a 1,000-litre tank and pump.

Additionally, a rainwater harvesting programme has been introduced, offering Rs 10,000 in subsidies to eligible households.

“Since December 10, 2024, we have recorded 6,400 applications, with 609 coupons already distributed to beneficiaries,” he added.

When pressed by Lesjongard about the existence of a Contingency Plan, Assirvaden revealed that he chairs daily crisis meetings to maximise the use of available resources, including the dams of the Central Electricity Board (CEB) and private sector wells and reservoirs.

“We have inherited a catastrophic situation that is placing our population at risk,” he said, also taking the opportunity to criticise Lesjongard, the former Minister of Energy and Public Utilities, accusing him of creating the current predicament.

The Minister referenced the much-anticipated Rivière-des-Anguilles Dam, which has been promised since 2015 but remains unbuilt, intended to relieve water pressure in the southern regions of the country.

Assirvaden outlined a series of measures taken to combat the crisis: a temporary suspension of irrigation for sugarcane fields, expedited repairs of leaky pipes to reduce water loss, the installation of 16 water reservoirs across the nation, mobilisation of water resources from large landowners, enhanced anti-waste measures, and a widespread public awareness campaign—thirteen measures in total.

However, Lesjongard countered that these actions should have been enacted the previous year already. “Is it normal for the Minister to take two weeks’ holiday?” he queried.

Speaker Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra deemed this remark “most unfair,” reminding all that “ministers travel and continue their work.”

In a particularly scathing assessment, Minister Assirvaden branded the Cluny reservoir project a “monumental failure”.

The structure, constructed at a cost of Rs 74 million to supply southern regions, was rendered unusable just 16 months after its inauguration, with twenty-five cracks discovered that are beyond repair.

“A preliminary report from my ministry indicates it must all be demolished,” he stated. He further announced that a comprehensive inquiry into this matter has been initiated to ascertain accountability.

As for the promise of 24/7 water supply heralded by the then-ruling Militant Socialist Movement during the 2014 electoral campaign, Assirvaden condemned it as “the scam of the century sold to the population by the previous government.”

He lamented that “the population is now suffering from ten years of poor planning, scandals, and failures.”

Source: Defi Media