President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has on Sunday created the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMC), ‘in an effort to minimize the impact of disasters’, the President’s Office has said.

The President’s Office said that the NDMA will organise and coordinate disaster management activities at national, atoll, and island levels that are conducted by State institutions, NGOs, and the private sector’.

The NDMA will be taking on the mandate of the National Disaster Management Center and replacing the institution. The institution was formed as per the Disaster Management Act.

According to the Disaster Management Act, such an authority should have been established within 30 days of the law’s passing, although the then government had failed to do so when the act was ratified in 2015.

The Disaster Management Act stipulates that the authority will be headed by a cabinet minister, and comprise of a chairperson and deputy chairperson appointed by the president, and its employees should be appointed under the authority, and not the Civil Service Commission.

The law also stipulates that a ‘council’ to regulate mitigation efforts and ensure protection of the people be formed, comprising of; an executive from the NDMA, the president and cabinet ministers for home affairs, foreign affairs, health, finance, environment, and defence.

The current government and Defence Minister Mariya Ahmed Didi, whose authority the National Disaster Mangement Center fell under, has heavily criticized the previous government, describings it development projects in the capital city 'careless'.

The Maldives Water and Sewerage Company's newly appointed managing director had also said in a recent interview with RaajjeTV that contractors involved in the development projects had entirely 'ignored engineers'.

The heavily congested capital is relatively flat and so prone to flooding due moderate and heavy rain. Earlier in December, a record amount of rain fall had flooded the city to the point that houses had to be evacuated and residents compensated for damages up to MVR 1.3 million.