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The Maldives, famous for its pristine beaches and scuba diving, has declared a state of crisis after a fire at the capital’s sole water sewage treatment plant led to a shortage of drinking water in the Indian Ocean archipelago.
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The Maldives has appealed for aid from India, Sri Lanka, the US and China. About 100,000 people in Malé, the capital, have been left without safe tap water, according to Mohamed Shareef, a government minister.
“We have declared a state of crisis, and also informed the shopkeepers to issue bottle water free of charge,” he said.
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The Maldives is dependent on tourism for 30% of its gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.
India is sending five planes with water and two ships with parts to help mend the machinery at the plant, according to Syed Akbaruddin, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman. The first plane with water arrived on Friday afternoon.
“Last night, the Maldives foreign minister contacted us saying they were facing a grave emergency,” Akbaruddin said. “For the next seven to eight days they are going to face extreme difficulty with water so they requested assistance.”
The Maldivian Red Crescent has deployed 24 staff and 60 volunteers to distribute water.
The Maldives, a group of 1,190 coral islands south-west of India, has a population of about 400,000 people and is visited by more than 750,000 tourists a year.
• This article was amended on 9 December 2014 to clarify that the Maldives has declared a state of crisis, not a state of emergency.
