City Council's actions will lead to surrounding roads flooding: Muththalib

Minister of Construction, Housing and Infrastructure Dr Abdulla Muththalib has voiced concerns that the Male' City Council's recent repair of part of Majeedhee Magu, raising its level, could lead to surrounding roads flooding.

Speaking to Mihaaru News, the Minister said that the Council's raising of the street near Male' Grand, in the centre of Male', may lead to surrounding streets becoming more heavily flooded during heavy rains.

This area is not equipped with a water drainage pump. Due to this, flood water in the area only seeps out through the storm drains.

Earlier this month, the Male' City Council removed the paving from Majeedhee Magu from the corner of Chaandhanee Magu to Rahdhebai Magu. They cleaned out the storm drains and repaved the street. During this work, the road and its pavements were raised higher than before.

"What City Council has done is raise the part of the road in front of Male' Grand. That is not a solution," Muththalib said.

"Although that part of the road may not flood now, what Male' City Council has done will now lead to the flooding being on the surrounding roads. The flood water may not stay for long near Male' Grand and Agora. But the water will now go towards Chandhanee Magu. To the surrounding streets. I will say that this was a stunt," he said.

Muththalib has said even previously that flooding in Male' streets cannot be solved by repairing parts of roads separately. He maintains that a solution to this issue can only be found through redesigning and reconstructing all roads of Male'.

"The issue we are facing now is, with these flash floods, water flows into people's homes and cause damage. Meaning, rather than the issue of the flood water remaining on the streets for a long period of time, the floods now cause loss to people. To resolve that, instead of the storm water system now, we have to build capacity to immediately pump out the water," he has said earlier.

The government has earlier announced a road construction project in Male' and ViliMale' will be conducted through a grant from China. A team of consultants from China visited Male' last month to initiate feasibility studies.