Boreholes promised as thirsty St-Paul blocks the road
Ten new boreholes, an extra 31,000 cubic metres of water a day, fifteen containerised filtration units: the government has finally put numbers on its rescue plan, with the boreholes due across the worst affected regions by the end of October to cover the shortfall at the La Marie treatment plant.
Patience ran out first. In St-Paul, residents dry for days blocked the main road on Wednesday night, turning cars back, and the anger has since carried to Highlands. Public Utilities Minister Patrick Assirvaden was blunt: the situation, he warned, will get harder before the rains come in two months.
The boreholes are racing the calendar: two more months of rationing is the forecast.
Roche-Bois is promised a Rs 100 million facelift
Roche-Bois has watched the country's imports roll past its port for decades without much coming back. Now the government is promising a Rs 100 million overhaul: a revamped Kaya stadium, a food court, an amphitheatre, a running track and a garden of endemic plants. Shakeel Mohamed, the Housing and Lands Minister and the area's own MP, laid out the plan this week, he called on private firms to help foot the bill. 'Roche-Bois has been ignored for too long,' he said.
Civil servants want 30% more to cover the drive to work
With petrol at Rs 77.70 a litre and diesel at Rs 78.35, the drive to work now eats into pay packet. The arithmetic is brutal. The Federation of Civil Service unions is demanding a 30% rise in travel allowances and mileage rates for staff who use their own cars on official duties, and households everywhere are doing the same grim sums at the pump.
'The NCA can make a difference,' says the DPP
'The NCA, as presented in the bill, can make a difference.' That was Rashid Ahmine, the Director of Public Prosecutions, on Wednesday after a roundtable on the National Crime Agency, a proposed body against organised crime. Attorney General Gavin Glover, the police chief and a former prosecutions head sat in. Glover is readying a broader justice overhaul.
Shorts
Drunken beach row ends in a Rs 1,000 fine – An American tourist, 41, was fined after a Grand-Baie beach altercation with a coast guard officer.
7,414 cannabis plants pulled at Riche-en-Eau – Police uprooted the plants after spotting the plantation from the air.
Four more held after Saint-Julien clashes – Police arrested four more people after the clashes with officers at Saint-Julien-d'Hotman.
Pedestrian hit by a Metro Express train – A tram struck a woman as she crossed the tracks at Barkly, the transport minister said.
Shelter rules for women to be redrawn – Housing Minister Shakeel Mohamed will review how shelter places are allocated to women.
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