The summer season has crept in somewhat late this year. It seems to be dry. We haven’t had significant drops for more than a month. The reservoirs are far below their capacity. Mare aux Vacoas, the main reservoir supplying the country, is drying up steadily. The Central Water Authority has already announced severe water interruptions if there’s no rainfall in the days to come. Mauritians will remember the riots at isolated places last year during this period due to drastic water cuts. Let’s hope this year we don’t reach that stage.
The heavy rainfalls associated usually with tropical storm activity in summer are the only hope for replenishing our reservoirs. There’s every reason to believe that rain will start falling very shortly. The Mauritius Meteorological Services is keeping a watch on a tropical depression about 800 kilometers to the north east. “The first cloud bands associated with the tropical depression will influence the local weather tomorrow,” says today’s evening forecast.
The cyclone activity this year is expected to be slightly below normal with some 7 to 9 named tropical storms according to the seasonal outlook released some time ago by the local weather service.
Alfa King Memories
Mauritian residing in Rodrigues, Amanoola Khayrattee (pen name Alfa King) is contributing writer and journalist to La Gazette Mag de l’océan indien and This Week News Mauritius.
Retired, former meteorological cadre, trade unionist and OSH consultant, Amanoola has written for in-house union and other journals, publications and magazines. He runs two blogs since 2007: “Alfa King Memories”, and “Le Journal d’Alfa King”. When he is not reading or writing, he is on a 10+ km daily hike in anticipation of his monthly trails.
Amanoola may be reached at [email protected].