🇲🇺 Government races the clock to pipe 14 million more litres to dry taps

Government races the clock to pipe 14 million more litres to dry taps

Public Utilities Minister Patrick Assirvaden has handed the Central Water Authority, the state body that runs the island's taps, ten days to finish a new pipe between Tamarin Falls and La Marie. The original target was 25 November. Assirvaden brought it forward because the reservoirs are running dangerously low, and the link will push an extra 14 million litres into the distribution network.

Three teams are already on site. “We must be able to complete this connection in 10 days,” Assirvaden said. Beyond the sprint, the authority will order ten more containerised pressure filters, machines that pull water from rivers, treat it, and push it straight into the network. They join 15 units it already ordered for Rs 350 million, with 75 due to be running across the country within weeks.

Assirvaden was blunt about the bigger picture: the country can no longer lean on rainfall and reservoirs alone. Ten days buys a little water. It does not buy a water system.

130,000 Mauritians live in poverty, the solidarity minister says

At a consultation in Port Louis, National Solidarity Minister Ashok Subron put the number of Mauritians living in poverty at 130,000. Poverty here is not only thin wallets, he said: it is cramped housing, patchy schooling, and young people with nowhere to go.

Subron tied those conditions to the youngsters swept up in October's unrest, while refusing to point fingers. “We are not blaming anyone,” he told residents, with Junior Minister Kugan Parapen beside him. The government cannot stay deaf, he said, when citizens go without a proper roof or enough to eat.

Transport corporation board questions perks given to its former boss

The board of the National Transport Corporation (CNT) wants to know how its former director general, Harvin Soonarane, collected a two months' salary bonus and a car loan without its approval. A memo dated 6 November lists the questions it is sending to the public service ministry.

It also asks whether Soonarane skipped a month's notice he owed, and how the balance of that car loan will be recovered. The sums are not huge, the principle is the point: who signs off when a boss rewards himself.

When does a loud exhaust cost you Rs 10,000?

When does that Rs 10,000 ticket for a noisy exhaust actually stick? Only when two things are both true, the minister says: the silencer has been modified, and the change made the car louder. Police have been told to tell a genuinely altered silencer apart from a mere accessory, so a shiny tailpipe tip alone should not cost you a cent.

SBM profit climbs 23% as the bank keeps a lid on costs

SBM Group, one of the island's biggest banking groups, says its profit before tax rose 23.1% over the first nine months of 2026 against the same stretch last year, crediting business growth and tighter cost control. Lending income held up even as the central bank nudged rates higher. When borrowing gets dearer, the lenders rarely feel the pinch first.

Shorts

Power cuts hit several regions this weekend – Supply goes off across several regions from Friday to Sunday as the electricity board runs grid maintenance.

Five held over the Selven Iyempermal murder – Five suspects are now in custody over murder of Selven Iyempermal, as the investigation widens.

Fatal crash at Grand-Port kills a man of 49 – Didier Papillon, 49, died in a collision with a car at Grand-Port, police said.

Port Louis cracks down on illegal street stalls – Port Louis council warns illegal street vendors to clear public spaces before busy festive season, or face action.

Elodie Thomas gives her first account – A month after a gunman shot her at Camp-Levieux, Elodie Thomas has given her first statement and thanked supporters.

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Rs 2.3 billion

worth of blue economy projects, from fish farming to port upgrades, sit on the government's drawing board as it tries to turn the ocean itself into a proper industry.

34 million

Sudanese, almost two thirds of the population, now need humanitarian aid, the UN food chief says, begging both armies to end a war that has driven the country toward famine.

€2.5 billion

has flowed to Portugal's economy over a decade of hosting the Web Summit, the tech gathering whose Lisbon edition this year let dancing humanoid robots hog the stage.

Machetes and sticks break up a Peter Obi rally in Lagos

A town hall meeting of Nigeria's opposition Democratic Congress turned violent in Lagos on Thursday, when men carrying sticks, machetes and axes forced their way into the venue. Supporters of Peter Obi, the party's figurehead, and several journalists had to flee the hall.

No one has yet said who sent the attackers, or why security did not hold them back. For a movement that sells itself as the clean alternative, a beaten-up crowd is its own kind of message.

Kenya braces for El Nino as flood survivors fear 2024 again

Forecasters warn of heavy El Nino rains, and Nairobi residents who lost homes in 2024 fear a repeat as building on wetlands keeps blocking the water's escape.

Sao Tome keeps its prime minister after a tight vote

The president has reappointed the sitting prime minister after the ruling party narrowly held off Americo Ramos's challengers in the island nation's legislative polls.

Nvidia's Jensen Huang quits as the spy scandal reaches Congress

Jensen Huang, the leather-jacketed boss who turned Nvidia into the engine room of the artificial intelligence boom, has resigned as chief executive. The trigger was two exposed affairs, one of them with a woman now accused of spying for China.

Congress has summoned Huang and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify over chip sales to Beijing. When one resignation can shake the markets that a whole index leans on, you see how much was riding on a single man's jacket.

Iran says it knocked out a US radar in Bahrain

Iran's Revolutionary Guard claims it destroyed a US early warning radar in Bahrain as payback, while American forces say they shot down two attack drones.

Microsoft's Outlook outage spreads to 74 countries

Outlook, Teams and Copilot went dark across 74 countries as Microsoft admitted its fix was not going to plan and went hunting for a workaround.

In a war zone, Bukavu books a week of stand-up

What do you do when the fighting never stops? In Bukavu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, you fill a week with comedians. Performers from Congo, Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire came to the city to swap jokes with a crowd that badly needed a night off.

It is a small thing against a long war. But laughter booked on purpose, in the middle of all that, is its own quiet act of defiance.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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