Salty Hulhudhuffaaru

When I left my island on 6th January this year I found that its water wss the freshest and the purest available in Maldives. I heard people praising and talking about islands which are famous for their good quality of water. But at that time I believed our island's was, and would be the best. The fact that our island was very recently inhabited made me believe that it would take ages to fully withdraw the freshwater from its layers.
But when I visited my island this July I nearly got a shock to believe that it has been becoming saltier. It would not be wrong to say that it is not just brackish-but really really salty. I couldn’t believe it at first. So I asked my dad about it, since I may “mis-tasted” it myself after bathing from salt water in Male’ for a half-year. But my dad confirmed it and said that it has been happening in the North part of the island while the Southern region seemed to be not much worse yet. Then what has gone wrong? Why it took just 6 months to be salty? Is it just the fact that “fresh water is a thin lens of water floating over a mass of denser salt water”? Or are the people to be blamed for this rapid damage?
There could be some possible reasons for this:
• Digging the wells so deep that it slowly mixes the salt water with the thin fresh water lens over time.
• Tsunami effects? But since Hulhudhuffaaru was not affected by it, it would be unwise to blame the Tsunami, though one can propose a theory that can associate these two factors scientifically.
• Construction of the Habour. But how can we link the problem with this??

There could be other reasons as well, but all I could say is that we had been so busy enjoying the benefit of the Grace of Allah Almighty that we forgot to make use of it properly. We exploited it without knowing that it will run out one day.
I could suggest the lovely people of Hulhudhuffaaru these solutions to lower the rate of depletion of the fresh water lens.
• Connect a gutter to the well so that excess rain water may fall into the well. This may mix the rain water with the ground water so that the fresh water layer might get thicker again.
I couldn’t think of anything any other solution. But there should be many. I look forward for your valuable suggestions for this would-be great threat for the people of Hulhudhuffaaru.
The need of the hour is not to have concern about the problem of having salt water or to find out appropriate solutions for the same, as it is history now. So let’s look for ways to make the best use of the salty water! What else can we do?

According to a UN 2007 Country Report, “surface water is lacking throughout the country with the exception of a few swampy areas.”