President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih today has said that this is a brand new chapter in the development of this country.
Speaking at the special ceremony to sign and hand over the largest water and sewerage system development projects in the country, President Solih claimed that the Maldives is now moving into a new phase of development.
Developing water and sewerage systems in all inhabited islands of the Maldives is one of the key presidential pledges of the current administration. When President Solih came into power, clean water supplies were available in 37 islands, while 69 islands had sewerage systems, out of a total of 188 inhabited islands.
Currently, sewerage system projects in 48 islands are ongoing along with water supply projects in 60 islands. The physical works of the sewerage system project in 22 islands are set to commence along with water supply projects in 53 islands. Moreover, sewerage system projects in 9 islands have been completed so far along with water supply projects in 8 islands. The current administration has set a budget of MVR 5.8 billion to develop water and sewerage systems in the Maldives.
Today marks a special milestone in the current administration, as sewerage system projects in 16 islands and water supply projects in 23 islands will be signed and handed over to various companies for development. This means all of the inhabited islands in the Maldives will have complete water and sewerage systems by the end of this development project.
President Solih assured that there will be no discrimination no matter how big or small an island is, and today is a proud day for this country as we turn a new chapter in the pursuit of urban development in the country. He also added the next phase of development will be about erecting buildings, bringing in new machinery, installing pipes, and supplying clean water to the whole Maldives.
He further expressed that the sheer amount of work and time required to make this a reality was not easy and the government had to spend a lot of money to come close to fulfilling this presidential pledge. He also thanked previous administrations for their efforts to develop water and sewerage systems in several islands, however, he would still not back down on his promise if he had to start from zero.
President Solih reiterated that we should only talk about development once we have a clean water supply and used the analogy to claim that his term of the presidency will be the cleanest in the history of Maldives. Moreover, despite the world coming to a halt because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it simply was not an excuse to delay the projects required for the development of this country.
