China's water diplomacy: Donates 1,500 tonnes of drinking water to Maldives

Maldives has received 1,500 tonnes of drinking water from China in the form of a donation as the island nation grapples with a water shortage.

China, which acquired the drinking water from glaciers in Tibet, decided to help Maldives tackle the shortage after China’s Tibet Autonomous Region’s Chairman, Yan Jinhai’s November 2023 visit to the archipelago where he met Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu.

The latest donation is a sign of the times as Maldives leans closer to China, especially after Muizzu came to power last year.

How was the water procured?

Maldives foreign ministry said that during Jihai’s visit, Malé reached a consensus with Beijing, as a result of which transportation of drinking water was arranged by procuring it from Tibet’s clean, clear and mineral-rich glacial regions. Moreover, Tibet (Xizang in Chinese) Autonomous Region is known to produce high-cost premium brands of water.  

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Glaciers in Tibet are an important water source for South Asian countries, including India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which rely on shared water resources for developmental work, food production and drinking purposes.

However, China’s unhinged favour for the Maldives puts other Asian nations in a spot as Beijing has not signed water-sharing treaties with any of its neighbouring nations.

Has Maldives received water from India?

In 2014, India launched “Operation Neer” to help the parched Maldives which was battling with an acute water shortage following a massive fire in Malé’s Water and Sewerage Company complex on Dec 4, 2014.

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Indian aircraft flew multiple sorties (the first aircraft arrived in Male within 12 hours of the request from the Government of Maldives) delivering 375 tonnes of drinking water to the people in Male. Two Indian Ships INS Deepak and INS Shukanya also arrived in Male and delivered around 2000 tonnes of water alleviating the pressure faced by the Maldivians.

Maldives’ water crisis

The island nation is in the midst of a slurry of environmental problems, threatening the very existence of its residents. Among them, water shortage is one of them.

Rising sea levels in the Maldives are drying up drinking water, with many communities reporting going out of potable water.

Before Muizzu came to power in November 2023, the country’s erstwhile government had warned of the detrimental effects of water shortage.

“Every island in the Maldives has run out of fresh water,” the now-former Environment Minister Shauna Aminath had said at the time of Muizzu’s victory.

Almost all of the 187 inhabited islets in the archipelago depend on expensive desalination plants, she told AFP.

“Finding ways as to how we protect our islands has been a huge part of how we are trying to adapt to these changes,” Aminath said.