The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has begun recruiting staff for a $9.3 million climate change adaption project in conjunction with the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Transport.
The UNDP’s “vision” was to have “a community enabled deal which addresses climate change impact,” said Mohamed Inaz, the UNDP’s assistant resident representative of environment and energy.
“Currently the ministry is in the process of recruiting. They need project staff who can address and implement the different issues,” he said.
The four year project, which was signed early in December and will run until March 2014, is intended to “integrate climate change risks into resilient island planning in the Maldives”. The project is the result was the result of a national adaptation program of action (NAPA) study completed in 2008, which attempted to identify activities that would assist a country to adapt to climate change.
According to the UNDP, the main focus of this project was to integrate climate change risk into sustainable human development and reduce the country’s vulnerability.
“We want risk assessment across all areas such as land use planning and decentralisation, and we also want to improve the meteorological service to provide more up-to-date data specific to the Maldives,” Inaz said.
While the ministry will implement the project, the UNDP noted that it would be closely monitored.
Police have apprehended an escaped convict from Maafushi jail, who escaped midway through last year.
Abdulla Ali Maniku from Bahaaruge Haa Alif Molhadhoo had been on the run since 17 June 2009.
The 37 year-old was originally arrested and charged for his part in the clashes between religious extremists and security forces on Alif Alif Himandhoo on 7 October 2007.
Police said Maniku also escaped from the jail early last year, when he was caught in Gaaf Dhaal Thinadhoo. While being transported back to Male’ he again gave the authorities the slip by jumping into the ocean near the island of Vaavu Felidhoo.
He was recaptured on 4 January on Kaafu Thilafushi, a heavily industrialised island seven kilometres west of Male’ known colloquially as ‘Garbage Island’.
In 2007, the government cracked down on religious extremism after a home-made bomb exploded in front of Sultan Park in Male’ on 1 October. The attack injured 12 tourists.
After the attack, police arrested ten suspects. A week later, more than 100 security personal searched the island of Himandhoo for people suspected to be linked with the attack.
The police and many of Himandhoo’s residents clashed violently, leaving many injured on both sides. More than 50 people were arrested and taken to Male’ for questioning.
Ali Maniku is currently being held by the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS).
The Election Commission (EC) has announced it will look to abolish all political parties with less than 3000 members.
According to TVM, the president of the election commission Fuwad Thaufeeq said the commission would make improvements to its political party regulations.
Fuwad said that the new regulation is being drafted and would be submitted to parliament next week.
Part of the new regulation will state that a new party will have three to six months to gather the required 3000 members.
President Mohamed Nasheed has said the the amount of drugs smuggled into the country “has decreased 100 per cent” over the last year.
President Nasheed made the comments while speaking at a rally for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
Nasheed said that the fight on drugs was one of the five pledges made by the party, and highlighted the declining number of drug addicts on the street.
According to Miadhu, the President also said that the government would pay out Rf1.2 billion in subsidies “to improve peoples lives”.
MNDF club have won the national 3rd division football title, beating the Police club 3-2 on penalties to win the final.
The match was held on the Maafanu turf ground.
At full time the scores were level 1-1, with MNDF striking first to gain an early goal through Ibrahim Mohamed. The Police club had a late equaliser courtesy of Mohamed Nizam.
In the penalty shoot out that followed, MNDF goalkeeper Mohamed Binaahu made three saves.
Supporters from both clubs were banned from entering the stadium for the final as the previous match between the two clubs had led to heated exchanges.
President Mohamed Nasheed has with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, Mr Yang Jiechi.
During Jiechi’s official visit the two discussed many issues including climate change, tourism, fisheries and investment possibilities..
According to the president’s office, Nasheed said the Maldives was currently looking for Chinese investment in its aqua culture sector.
Jiechi also told the president that China would honour its commitments made in Copenhagen, and would fully cooperate to reach a viable agreement on climate change.
President Mohamed Nasheed has vetoed the bill on protecting the rights of and providing financial assistance to people with special needs following an appeal from NGOs and advice from the attorney general that it would conflict with UN conventions.
Article 91(a) of the constitution states the president shall either assent to a bill within 15 days or return it for reconsideration.
The bill was passed on 21 December and would have automatically become law if the president did not ratify it today.
Mohamed Zuhair, president’s office press secretary, said the legislation was returned as the president believed it could lead to “social, economical and legal problems” if it was enacted.
Zuhair said Attorney General Husnu Suood advised the president that many provisions in the bill conflicted with international standards and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which the Maldives has acceded to.
Suood told the president that the bill would create obstacles for persons with special needs making decisions on their own and participating in society.
Zuhair added the ministry of health and family informed the president that social and economic difficulties could arise if the provisions in the legislation were implemented.
Moreover, the Human Rights Commission of Maldives as well as NGOs Care Society, Handicap International and Association for Disabilities and Development had urged the president to ask parliament to ensure that the law would protect the rights of people with special needs as required by the UN convention.
Appeal
"Don't ratify the bill!"
Care Society, the Maldivian Deaf Association and the Association for Disabilities and Development were joined by parents of persons with special needs at a gathering outside the president’s office this morning.
The NGOs and parents held up placards urging the president not to ratify the bill.
Speaking to Minivan News, Sidaatha Shareef from Care Society said the NGOs wanted a law to protect the rights of the special needs.
“But we had to gather today after working through a lot of different stages. When the bill was at parliament, we met parliament members and met members of the social affairs committee separately and made recommendations in writing and gave them a presentation,” she said.
The bill was passed without considering any of the recommendations, she continued, and the NGOs met with the president’s office, the HRCM and the health ministry to raise their concerns.
“But, since we have not got an adequate response, we are here today to see what decision is made,” she said, adding if the president ratified the bill it would be a “big failure”.
Among the main concerns with the bill was lack of health rehabilitation. “That is one difficulty that the parents here endure every day. It is a basic right that they should be getting,” she said.
She added the language of some provisions the “spirit of the bill” would “segregate” people with special needs or provide assistance as “charity”.
The NGOs wanted the bill to be “more inclusive, rights-based and in line with the UNCPWD”.
Shortly after Sidaatha went into the president’s office and was told to wait until the end of lunch hour, Hassan Afeef, political advisor to the president, came out and addressed the group.
Asked how the president would make his decision, Afeef said, “The president is considering doing it in line with your thinking.”
The last person to see 30 year-old Mariyam Sheereen alive on Thursday night was an islander of Laamu Mundhoo who rents an apartment in the same house, one of Sheereen’s family members has claimed.
Sheereen was found dead on Sunday night under a pile of sand bags at a construction site in Male’.
Speaking to Minivan News on the condition of anonymity, the family member said Sheereen came to visit her mother at around 8pm on Thursday night.
“She said her SIM [card] wasn’t working, so I gave her a new one and asked her to return it on Friday,” said the relative. “Her mother told me she called her boyfriend before going out and argued with him.”
Sheereen left at around 9pm and that, the relative said, was the last time her family saw her.
Originally from Laamu Mundhoo, Sheereen moved to Laamu Gan with her mother and children, after the island was devastated in the tsunami.
Before her death, she had been living in a rented house in Male’ with one of her children.
The relative said she was seen with her boyfriend later that night by a family friend, while a friend of her mother’s saw the two of them in her rented room on New Year’s Eve.
Police said yesterday that Sheereen’s body was found by a Bangladeshi labourer on Sunday at Maafanu Angaagiri, under a pile of sandbags. The family was called to identify Sheereen two days after they filed a missing person’s report.
Arrest
Police further revealed that a man had been taken into custody in connection with the suspected murder.
The relative said the Mundhoo man and Sheereen’s landlord knocked on her door on Friday morning as her slippers were outside, but there was no answer.
On Friday afternoon, her mother called her boyfriend and asked the landlord to open her apartment.
They found her handbag and the clothes she was wearing on Thursday night, and reported her as missing to the police.
According to the relative, police have since arrested Sheereen’s boyfriend, a man from Laamu atoll Kalhaidhoo.
The relationship was marred by a history of abuse, the relative continued, and Sheereen was once hospitalised in Laamu Gan regional hospital after he had severely beaten her.
Police would not confirm the identity of the man arrested.
Asked if the case was being treated as a murder investigation, Sergeant Ahmed Shiyam from the Maldives Police Service said “we cannot give any details yet of the case, but all we can say is that [the suspect] has been brought in because we suspect him of being linked.”
Reaction
Mohamed Zuhair, the president’s press secretary, condemned the case as “horrific”.
“The president is very concerned about this alleged murder, and calls on the members of the public to assist the police in anyway they can,” Zuhair said.
The president’s office has been in close contact with the police commissioner, he added: “We have received information that the body was discovered 72 hours after death.”
Blessed with an abundance of natural beauty, Gnaviyani atoll Fuvamulah is also geographically unique; an atoll and an island at the same time.
One of the major attractions of the island are the two kulhi (freshwater lakes). The smaller Dhandigamu Kulhi is often used by the locals to go swimming, but Bandara Kulhi has fared worse, degrading to such an extent that few now venture near it.
“It’s almost a garbage site now, a dump site. There’s is no one to look after the place,” says Hassan Saeed, the atoll councillor.
Nevertheless Bandara Kulhi remains one of the most serene and beautiful locations on the island. Stretching across 274 meters, access to it is via marshlands and narrow paths near taro fields.
Islanders used a built a jetty off the main road seven years ago to gain access to it, however neglect has caused it to crumble to the point of being unsafe.
A novel idea
Locals enjoying
In order to reverse the damage and reopen the kulhi, a novel but controversial idea has been floated.
“We recently had [a visit from] a survey team from the ministry of fisheries and agriculture, and the report they submitted advised us that a way to generate the budget to take care of the kulhi could be to commercially commodify it,” Saeed says.
Details are sketchy: “We are just sending out feelers right now, we will consult with the agricultural ministry as well as the environmental ministry, find out which criteria we have to set, and then invite proposals,” he says.
Leasing out the land for farming or a restaurant are some of the ideas. The party who winning the lease would be entrusted the task of making sure no waste is dumped in the wetland in the area, while the money would be used to protect and maintain the kulhi.
Some are apprehensive about the idea.
“We heard about this but I’m not sure how far they have gone with the idea,” says Abdul Azeez Ismail, chairman of NGO Fuvamulah Association of Developing Infrastructure (FADI) and a member of the society for environmental awareness.
Ismail is of the opinion that leasing the land to just anybody will lead to further destruction of the place. He has reservations about opening the area to just local tourism and believes a resort should be involved
“South province state minister Mohamed Naseer once mentioned it. There are resorts in Addu and Huvadhoo Atoll, so opening it to international tourists shouldn’t be a problem,” he says, adding that mostly it is only resorts that have the capacity to care and protect the environment.
“Fuvamulah is different to other islands. So much can be done here, and the kulhi is a gift to us from nature so we have to conserve it,” he says.
Bandara Kulhi (freshwater lake): a rare sight in the tiny islands of the Maldives
Beneficial or destructive?
Islander Hassan Mohamed, 68, says “better to lease out if it could be beneficial to the islanders.”
He recalls that in the past during the governments of Mohamed Amin and Ibrahim Nasir, the kulhi was leased out: “It was well maintained at that time. There were banana plantations nearby, weeds were cut, and surroundings were kept clean.”
During Amin Didi’s time coconut husks were lowered into the kulhi, after which it was used to make choir ropes that were sold. In Nasir’s time the leasee cultivated milkfish and whenever fish was scarce they sold it to the general populace.
“In recent years nothing has been done and the place is being destroyed,” Hassan says.
Most islanders seem to agree with him.
“If done properly leasing out the kulhi area would be good,” says 32 year-old Masitha Ahmed.
Executive director of NGO Blue Peace, Ali Rilwan, says everything depends on how much the place will be altered if it were leased.
“How much mangrove will be cut? Will it be only the bank of the kulhi that is going to be leased?” he asks.
Internationally Rilwan claims it is the norm to conserve some areas as strict nature reserves, while others are regulated to ensure nature and human activities can co-exist.
“There are nature parks that are leased to private parties to protect,” he explains. However he reserves his final judgment for “when we see an environmental assessment report. Then we can talk about the merits or demerits.”
Saeed sums the argument for leasing the area. “Is it better to let the area get destroyed? Or commodify the place in order to look after it responsibly?”
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