As soon as the authorities decided to subsidise solar boilers for €125 to €250 per household, depending on the income (which represents about a quarter to half of the average price), Mauritians started running to grab the opportunity.

In two days, over 20,000 people have streamed to the counters of the Development Bank of Mauritius to file their claims and be granted the precious amount, reports the daily Le Matinal. So far, 58,000 households have thus been equipped.

With this high level of popularity, the government which had set aside an amount of €17 million for this measure, is now looking at upwardly revising the budget to €26 million to meet the growing demand.