Male’ is home to over one third of the population of the country and a great majority of over 78,000 expatriates who live and work in the Maldives.

This morning a shocking experience took the whole island by surprise. Male’ did not have any electricity right throughout the island for over an hour in the morning. This experience ran shockwaves through my mind.

I thought: what if we have such a situation in Male’ for 24 hours. Are we prepared? How prepared are we?

What would be the fate of the people in Male’ in such an eventuality where we may have a disruption to electricity supplies for more than 24 hours? I think that we need to establish a Disaster Management Centre for Male’ under the Male’ Municipality which should make the necessary preparations for such eventualities.