🇲🇺 Mauritius's biggest reservoir drops to 40% as water cuts loom

Mauritius's biggest reservoir drops to 40% as water cuts loom

Mare-aux-Vacoas, the island's largest reservoir, has fallen to 40% of capacity, down from more than 80% at the same point a year ago. The Central Water Authority says fresh restrictions are on the way, and its communications officer, Sunil Gopal, has told households to expect tighter rationing while the dry spell holds.

Mare-aux-Vacoas feeds much of the central plateau and the towns below it, and a reservoir this low in September, before the hottest and driest months arrive, leaves almost no cushion if the rains keep failing. The reserve has roughly halved in twelve months. The margin is thin.

The Authority has announced restrictions before, so the promise itself is not the news. What households need is the detail, which regions lose supply, on which days, and for how long, and that is the part still missing.

Last September it sat above 80 percent. Halving in a year is a trend, not a dry patch.

Women entrepreneurs' 0.5% loans are quietly repriced to 4.75%

From 0.5% to 4.75%. That is the new rate women entrepreneurs say the Development Bank of Mauritius (DBM) is applying to loans of up to Rs 1.2 million under the Women Entrepreneur Loan Scheme, even on files handed in months ago.

One applicant says she submitted on 19 May and finished every formality by 25 June, before the 2026/27 Budget, yet the bank only looked at her file internally in July and now says the new terms apply. The women want one thing settled: does a scheme's rate lock at the date you apply, or the date the bank gets to you?

The fight is less about the rate than the retroactivity, terms shifting after the file was complete.

Ali Mansoor warns of a 15-year economic cliff for Mauritius

Ali Mansoor, a former Financial Secretary and economist, says Mauritius is heading for an economic "precipice" within 15 years unless the fundamentals change. His worry is not next quarter's growth number. The leaks are structural.

Mansoor points to two things, chronic trade deficits that leave the island importing far more than it sells abroad, and a system of governance he considers too centralised to adapt quickly. Both, he argues, are slow drains that sink economies over decades, not months.

The timeline is the useful part. Fifteen years is long enough to fix, and long enough to keep ignoring.

Intelligence chief Madhow is shifted to the south

The government has shifted Deputy Commissioner of Police Mohunlall Madhow, head of the National Security Service (NSS), the country's main intelligence arm, to the Southern Division, and named Rajeshwar Ramsawock to hold the post on an interim basis. Nobody has explained why the move comes now. Reshuffles at the top of the service rarely stay quiet for long.

Tougher penalties loom for driving on drugs

Driving under the influence of drugs could soon carry stiffer penalties, under a road safety push the government is branding "Sekirite Nou Priorite," Creole for safety is our priority. Officials say drug-driving has slipped through rules written mainly for alcohol, the plan is to close that gap with tougher sanctions and clearer testing.

Shorts

A court convicts a doctor a second time – A court convicts Dr Nishan Moheeputh in a second indecent assault case, months after his first.

A ransom call from her own son – A Poste-de-Flacq mother got calls from her son demanding a Rs 1.4 million ransom.

162 tickets in a Goodlands bike sweep – Police impounded 16 motorcycles and wrote 162 tickets in a Goodlands crackdown on illegal races.

Mauritius courts the Chinese market – At Guangzhou's big food fair, Mauritius is pushing to widen its access to Chinese buyers.

The FCC puts seized cars and boats up for auction – The FCC is auctioning cars, boats and trucks it seized, with real estate to follow.

8.5%

of Mauritians live below poverty line, says a new UN report that also flags 11% facing food insecurity and warns of a possible water shortage by 2030.

7,000

cases now confirmed across the DR Congo Ebola outbreak, with close to 3,400 deaths, though officials say the spread may finally have peaked.

35 years

since the United States last saw a measles outbreak this large, marked now by a third death, an unvaccinated Pennsylvania woman.

Africa's biggest share sale opens to the public

Africa just opened its biggest share sale yet. Shares in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the continent's largest, went on sale Monday, and owner Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, is pitching it as a chance for ordinary people to own a slice.

The refinery has reshaped fuel supply across West Africa since it opened. Letting the public buy in turns a billionaire's project into something closer to a national asset, at least on paper.

Kenya's Ruto draws a rising challenger

Who takes on William Ruto next year? A Nairobi senator of 44, Edwin Sifuna, is rising fast on public anger over corruption and political violence.

Kinshasa drafts former criminals to clean up

Kinshasa's answer to rubbish choking its streets is an unlikely one: former criminals drafted into national service to clean up, though whether it works is another question.

A Russian drone strike hits Ukraine's border with Poland

A Russian drone strike set fire to a petrol station near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk crossing on Ukraine's border with Poland early Sunday, a main supply route into Ukraine. Video from near the crossing showed flames and thick smoke as crews fought the blaze.

Warsaw and Kyiv both called the hit an escalation, landing so close to the frontier of NATO, the Western military alliance. That is the line everyone is watching: how near the war can creep to Poland before it stops being only Ukraine's fight.

Israeli strike kills two Hamas engineers in Gaza

An Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa district killed two Hamas engineers and wounded 13, Israel said, pointing to the men's work on weapons.

Zverev wins his first US Open title

Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton in four sets for his first US Open title and his second Grand Slam of 2026.

When Tamarin's coast was salt country

Long before Tamarin was a surf town, it was salt country. The salines, or salt pans, first appeared in Port Louis between 1715 and 1810, then moved west to a stretch of coast better suited to making salt.

Guides still walk visitors through the grids where seawater was left to evaporate by hand, slow work that once fed the island and now offers a quiet window into how people lived off the sea.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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