Month: June 2015

In neglected Dhiggaru, people are content

Additional reporting by Ismail Humam Hamid

Abdul Sattar Hussain, an 80-year-old retired fisherman on Meemu Atoll Dhiggaru Island, has seen six presidencies in the Maldives. For him, the worst rule was that of the first president Mohamed Ameen Didi, and the best was that of the second president Ibrahim Nasir.

“Ameen made us all hungry,” he said, recalling the famine of World War Two. “We were hungry all the time. But Nasir, he is the best president this country ever saw. He got us out of eating cereal and millet.”

Lounging on a woven rope joali in the ruling Progressive Party of Maldives’ (PPM) haruge, Sattar took off his dark glasses, rubbed it with his checkered sarong and declared: “After Nasir saved us it hasn’t been all that bad. It’s not that bad now either.”

Sattar is content. He does not expect much from the central government.

The people of Dhiggaru are proud fisherpeople. Their wives dry tuna, and make rihaakuru, a tuna paste famous throughout the Maldives. Their young men take up fishing or go work at luxury resorts nearby. Most invest their earnings into building single-storied brick homes on family plots.

Life, on this small and quiet island, has remained unchanged for decades.

On Saturday, Dhiggaru was at the centre of Maldivian politics. A parliamentary by-election, triggered by the surprise imprisonment of MP Ahmed Nazim, took place.

The PPM candidate and son of a former president, Ahmed Faris Maumoon, won against the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) Ahmed Raazee with 59.4 percent of the vote.

For the besieged central government, the by-election victory was a demonstration of support in a politically charged time. The PPM’s coalition partners had allied with the MDP in March and had launched daily protests in Malé over the jailing of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed.

But here on Dhiggaru, the politics of Malé is far removed.

Successive governments have neglected Dhiggaru. The people lay the pipes for a rudimentary sewerage system by hand and built half of the sea wall encircling the island. The men prefer to work hard during the day and sleep with their wives at night. Political party rivalry exists, but is muted. The economy, unlike that of most small islands, is self-sufficient.

Political party membership is divided according to neighbourhoods. The north supports the MDP, while the south, where the majority live, support the PPM.

Sattar lives in the southern ward. “I go with whatever they pick. That’s not for me as an individual to decide,” he said.

“I don’t know much about that”

Some 1,300 people are registered as Dhiggaru residents, but only 944 live on the island. The majority is middle-aged. Here, everyone knows everyone. Most are related to each other.

“We do not take political party rivalry personally,” Mariyam Hassan, 53, said. “What is the benefit of that? We talk to each other, help each other and try to live peacefully.”

Most people do not have much to say about democracy, the government’s performance, or the jailing of the MP who had represented them for 20 years.

“What is democracy? What is it like? I don’t know anything about it,” said Aishath Hassan, a dedicated 61-year-old PPM activist.

For the people of Dhiggaru, a parliamentarian is not a lawmaker, but an official elected to help the community in their time of need, mostly in paying medical bills.

Nazim is admired in Dhiggaru. Most, no matter which political party they support, have received his help. He was jailed for life on corruption charges, after he reportedly fell out of favour with President Abdulla Yameen and his tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb.

“When I was little he bought me my school books. He bought schoolbooks for my daughter. And recently, when one of my family members got sick Nazim sent him abroad for medical treatment with a family member,” Khalida Hussain, 42, said.

In his 20-year tenure, Nazim built a computer lab at the island school and is credited with the construction of the island health post, although the funds came from the state budget. Most voters said they want a man like Nazim to represent them in the Majlis.

“We are hoping to elect a man as loyal to us as Nazim,” Afeefa Abdulla, 53, said.

“Nazim is a very kind, loyal man. He brought many developments to Dhiggaru. If you go to him ask for help he would never turn you down,” Usman Mohamed, 64, said.

When asked about Nazim’s imprisonment, many said: “I have nothing to say about that.”

A 28-year-old MDP supporter, Dawood Abdul Gadhir said: “If anyone commits a crime he has to pay for it. But I have no information about it.”

Content

Dhiggaru islanders do not have much, but they seem content.

Mohamed Munavvar is only 20 years old. By dawn he is out at sea. But on Friday, he was home because of bad weather. “It’s just fishing. It’s not hard if you love what you do,” he said.

A fisherman makes an average of MVR10,000 (US$648) per month. The fisheries sector is small and dependent on skipjack tuna.

“People ask us why we don’t build bigger fishing boats to catch yellow fin tuna, which is more lucrative. But then, we would have to travel longer distances and we will be out for at sea for weeks. We would rather spend all the money we get on this island and come back to our wives at night,” Mohamed “Gadha” Hussain, 38, said.

Some young men, however, expressed discontent with the lack of employment opportunities.

“There are no jobs here. You either go fishing or end up in a resort. I just finished my A ‘levels. I will have to go and work in a resort probably,” Ibrahim “Dida” Humaid said. “The other option is going to Malé City for work. A lot of young people are there already.”

Dhiggaru islanders have one wish – for the government to reclaim land from the lagoon and increase the land area of the now-13 hectare island.

“We want to own land. We want more people here. Every government has promised that, but its all lies,” Munavvar, the 20-year-old fisherman said.

During president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s time, a small sliver of land was reclaimed at the harbour. During Nasheed’s time, another area was reclaimed to the south of the island.

In the weeks leading up to the by-election, the government promised several development projects. An x-ray machine and air-conditioning units were delivered. A contract was signed for harbour renovation. President Yameen promised a new power generator, a new sewerage system, and said PPM constituencies will be prioritised for development in 2016.

Meanwhile, Faris has promised that the government will develop five resorts close to Dhiggaru.

Excavators and heavy machinery were brought on to Dhiggaru. But work has not begun yet.

With Faris’ win, some hope the island will be reclaimed, but many opposition supporters said they do not expect much progress.

“These machines are not going to be here for that long. Whatever the results of the elections may be, these are going to go from here,” Dawood Hassan, 28, said. “We haven’t seen any development in Dhiggaru for ages. But now that its election time, we are hearing many stories and plans for development. I think there is something awfully wrong in this.”

“Yameen recently said he is hoping the work will be done by next year. So we don’t know anymore. It progressing slowly,” Ahmed Nishan, an MDP council member of Dhiggaru island council said.

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Maldivians will survive climate change, says tourism minister

Tourism minister Ahmed Adeeb has urged Maldivians to adapt to the impacts of climate change instead of considering relocation to higher ground abroad.

Maldivians will continue to live on Maldivian soil for the next 500 years, he said, at a festival held to mark the World Environment Day on Saturday.

“Maldives are innovative and always looking for new innovations. We will live here in the Maldives even if we have to reclaim land or live on floating contraptions,” he said.

The Maldivian islands lie just a meter above sea-level.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in a 2013 report said global sea-level is rising and predicts accelerated rise for this century.

For high emissions, the IPCC now predicts a global rise by 52-98 cm by the year 2100, which would threaten the survival of coastal cities and island nations such as the Maldives.

Sea-level rise will be accompanied by coastal erosion, surface-flooding and saltwater intrusion into soil and groundwater, scientists have said. Climate change will also bring frequent and severe weather extremes and coral reef die-offs because of ocean warming and acidification.

Foreign minister Dunya Maumoon in a message on World Environment Day said: “The Maldives continues to take a proactive approach in building resiliency to the adverse impacts of climate change through pursuing a low carbon development strategy.”

President Abdulla Yameen has pledged to explore for oil in the Maldives.

Rubbish Island

In his speech, Adeeb also pledged to allocate a US$6 green tax – to be levied on tourists in November – to tackling waste management on Thilafushi Island, where garbage from Malé and resorts are sent.

“Tourists, who travel via air taxi, have asked if Thilafushi is a volcano, if volcanoes exist in the Maldives. I tell them that is not the case here and that I cannot give further details,” he said.

More than 200,000 tons of industrial and domestic waste were sent to Thilafushi in 2013, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to government figures.

While some of the waste is sorted and sent to India, most is simply used as landfill or burned. Campaign groups have highlighted the risks to workers from toxic fumes and the contamination of surrounding lagoons by floating garbage.

The former Maldivian Democratic Party-led government had signed a contract with India-based Tatva Global Renewable Energy in 2011 to provide waste management services in and around Male, including establishing a system to generate power from recycling waste.

However, the current government of President Yameen cancelled that deal late last year, having previously sought to renegotiate it on “more mutually beneficial” terms.

Photo: social media 

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Police conduct random checks on flights bound to Turkey

The police have begun conducting random checks on passengers on board flights to Turkey in a bid to deter the growing numbers of Maldivians seeking to join radical Islamic movements in Syria and Iraq.

A police spokesperson said the police have been randomly questioning Maldivians en route to Turkey on different airlines for their reasons for flying to Turkey and their return dates.

The operation has been ongoing for more than 90 days.

The police declined to give additional details.

The government has drafted a new anti-terrorism bill that would criminalize the act of leaving the Maldives to participate in foreign wars.

The bill, however, also grant the president the exclusive authority to declare groups as terrorist organizations, and also criminalizes the promotion of certain political or religious ideology as a terrorist offense.

When reports of Maldivians joining in the Syrian civil-war and dying in battle first surfaced in local media, President Abdulla Yameen said he was not aware of Maldivian participation in foreign wars.

In December, home minister Umar Naseer acknowledged the problem of Maldivians fighting in foreign wars, but said only seven Maldivians were active in war. In January, the commissioner of police Hussain Waheed estimated the figure to be more than 50.

But the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party says the figure could be as high as 200.

Waheed said that police were monitoring the activities of militants and would reveal details of plans to prevent radicalisation at a later date. The MDP has said the government is doing little to counter radicalisation and prevent recruitment of would-be fighters.

Atleast seven Maldivians are reported to have died in Syria.

On May 31, newspaper Haveeru said two more Maldivians had been killed while fighting with the Islamic State.

Many would-be fighters migrate with their families and children. Several officers of the Department of Immigration are reported to have left the Maldives for jihad.

A UN report has raised concerns over an increase in fighters leaving the Maldives to join terrorist organisations including al-Qaida and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The expert report to the UN Security Council, obtained by The Associated Press, said the flow of fighters globally “is higher than it has ever been historically”, increasing from a few thousand a decade ago to over 25,000 from more than 100 nations today.

The UN report, written by a UN panel monitoring sanctions against Al-Qaida, listed the Maldives, Finland and Trinidad and Tobago as countries from which numbers of fighters were increasing, while the highest number of foreign fighters come from Tunisia, Morocco, France and Russia.

Most fighters travel to Syria and Iraq, to fight primarily for the Islamic State and the Al-Nusra front.

A Facebook page had published, the obituary and pictures of Maldivian jihadi Azlif Rauf on May 24, who reportedly died in Syria in mid-May.

The former Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) officer is a suspect in the brutal murder of MP Dr Afrasheem Ali in 2012. He reportedly left the Maldives in December with six members of the Kuda Henveiru gang.

He was under house arrest at the time.

 

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President pledges to write off fines for traffic violations

President Abdulla Yameen has pledged to write off fines accumulated for traffic violations and illegal parking.

Speaking at a function with youth supporters last night, Yameen observed that the fines for some motorcycles impounded at the tow yard has reached up to MVR80,000 (US$5,188), which most youth were unable to afford.

“We have submitted a bill to the People’s Majlis to write off debt or arrears built up like this. So from the day this bill passes, those youth will no longer be in debt,” he declared to loud cheers.

Yameen said the pro-government majority will pass amendments to the land transportation law before Ramadan or during the current session of parliament.

MP Ahmed Nihan, parliamentary group leader of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), had revealed last month that President Yameen was considering writing off traffic fines.

The capital does not have the parking capacity for the increasing number of motorcycles, Nihan said, and many young people owed money to the state as fines for illegal parking.

According to a 2011 report by the Environment Protection Agency, one in six residents of the capital own a motorcycle.

The president made the pledge during a “meeting with youth” at the carnival area of Malé. President’s office spokesperson Ibrahim Muaz Ali told Minivan News yesterday that the event was arranged for the president to share information about his youth-related programmes “and for the youth to share their views straight with the president.”

Yameen’s 2013 presidential campaign had focused heavily on youth empowerment with pledges to create 94,000 jobs and build futsal pitches and sports arenas across the country.

The opposition has, however, accused the government of failing to fulfil its pledges, imprisoning opposition leaders to pave the way for autocratic rule, and maintaining illicit connections with criminal gangs. The government denies the allegations.

“Greener pastures”

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In his speech last night, Yameen said youth were “neglected,” used as “weapons” by politicians, and had fallen prey to drug abuse before he assumed office in November 2013.

The current administration was elected with the support of youth, he continued, who voted for housing, jobs, and sports facilities.

Yameen urged young people in remote islands to migrate to the reclaimed island of Hulhumalé, which the government is planning to develop as a ‘Youth City’ with the capacity of housing three-fourths of the country’s population.

Youth must abandon small islands that lack economic prospects or job opportunities, he advised, and move to “greener pastures.”

If 85 percent of the government’s targeted 94,000 jobs are filled by youth, Yameen said they would be able to afford rent or mortgage payments for the new housing units to be built in Hulhumalé.

He vowed that construction on the Malé-Hulhulé bridge will begin this year.

“Then even [opposition Maldivian Democratic Party supporters] will also go for rides on the dream bridge between Malé and Hulhumalé,” he said.

Plans for youth empowerment include the ‘Get Set’ youth entrepreneurship programme and “integrated tourism” projects aimed for small and medium-sized businesses, he said.

Yameen said young entrepreneurs who were previously excluded from the lucrative tourism industry due to high barriers of entry will be able to invest in one component of the ‘guesthouse island projects,’ such as water sports or restaurants.

The government is also planning to privatise rehabilitation centres as part of its efforts to “redeem” drug addicted youth.

Yameen urged youth to “say no” to those who encouraged them to commit crimes.

Maldivian youth is the “dynamo of the engine of the Maldivian state” and the “development partners” of the current administration, Yameen said.

“If you want to want to carry this partnership forward, the basis of the bond or contract that is established is sincerity. Both sides must fulfil what they agree to do,” he said.

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President Yameen to travel to China

President Abdula Yameen is to travel to China on June 11 to visit the China-South Asia exposition and the Kunming import and export fair, local media report.

The president is to give a keynote speech at the joint-opening of the two fairs.

Leaders of the eight SAARC countries and Saudi Arabia will attend the fairs, Haveeru has said.

The opposition has planned a mass protest for June 12 over the jailing of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and ex-defence minister Mohamed Nazim.

The Maldives will hold a second investment forum in China’s capital Beijing in September.

“Beijing will be a perfect place for Maldivian businesses to promote their businesses and networking,” minister Mohamed Saeed said in a tweet in late May.

 

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PPM wins Dhiggaru by-election

Reporting by Hassan Mohamed and Ismail Humam Hamid

The ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) has won the parliamentary by-election for the Dhiggaru constituency with 59.4 percent of the vote.

PPM candidate Ahmed Faris Maumoon won some 1238 votes, while the main opposition party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate Ahmed Raazee won 763 votes, according to preliminary results published by the Elections Comission (EC).

EC figures show some 2,084 of the 2,555 eligible voters cast their votes in today’s polls.

A smiling Faris said he will only comment after official results are announced. Faris is the son of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and nephew to president Abdulla Yameen.

The PPM, however, has described the election win as a demonstration of public support for the besieged government.

“The opposition says there is no support for the government. They say ours is a government with only 25 percent support. But now this election proved them completely wrong,” PPM spokesperson Ali Arif said.

Citing growing authoritarianism, ruling coalition partners, the Jumhooree Party (JP) and the religious conservative Adhaalath Party, had split from the PPM in January and March, respectively. They allied with the MDP and formed a coalition – “Maldivians Against Tyranny.”

The JP’s last minute backing was key in PPM’s presidential win in 2013. President Abdulla Yameen, who had only won 25 percent in the first round, gained 51.39 percent in the second round.

The opposition coalition has been protesting over the imprisonment of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed and ex-defence minister Mohamed Nazim, and the targeting of JP leader Gasim Ibrahim’s businesses.

The Dhiggaru by-election was triggered by the imprisonment of ruling party MP Ahmed Nazim on corruption charges.

Arif promised development for Dhiggaru and said: “The government does not favor constituencies with government MPs. But having a government MP will make it easier for the government to understand the needs of the constituency. Once again I thank the Dhiggaru constituency for expressing their confidence in the government.”

Weeks before the election, the government delivered an x-ray machine to Dhiggaru, promised a harbor in the island, while PPM MPs delivered air-conditioning units to the Dhiggaru and Muli island mosques.

President Yameen, meanwhile, promised to provide a 140-kilowatt generator for Dhiggaru and said he will prioritize PPM constituencies for development in the 2016 budget.

Speaking to Minivan News, Razee accused the government of bribery and vote buying, and said he did not believe the election had been fair.

“The government used all of its powers to influence the election. We saw the excavators on the islands. They were threatening to take them away and halt harbor work if PPM did not win. People of this constituency want development. People want to their harbors to be completed. They were scared. We saw the government use council equipment and the hospital’s ambulance for their campaign. They used everything to gain unfair advantages. We saw the air conditioners they brought with them for the mosque,” he said.

“I will keep on serving the people of the constituency and fight against injustice. We won’t give up just yet.”

The police prevented a boat carrying some 40 opposition supporters from leaving Malé to go vote in Dhiggaru. The boat was scheduled to leave at 2:00am, but the police’s dog squad was brought on board to check for drugs on the boat.

Passengers left to Dhiggaru on speedboats this morning.

The boat was only allowed to leave at 1:00pm today. No drugs were found on board, the boat captain said.

Two independent candidates also contested in the elections. Shameem Ali won 52 votes while Moosa Naseer won 31 votes.

Photo from social media

This article was amended to include preliminary results from the Elections Commission. 

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Security services to receive medals on Independence Day

The government will award a medal to all police and military officers to mark their services to the state on the occasion of 50 years of independence .

“Officers from both the military and the police will be given medals. This a common practice all around the world, as they protect the country’s independence in the front lines,” the home ministry’s Thazmeel Abdul Samad said.

In an interview with Dhi TV on Monday, commissioner of police Hussein Waheed said the medals will be worn with police uniforms.

The Maldives’ Independence Day falls on July 26.

President Abdulla Yameen officially launched the “Minivan 50” or “Independence 50” celebrations on March 12 with a music show.

Since then, the government has slaughtered 150 goats, brought out tens of thousands of students for a parade, organized football competitions, a sky-diving event and a swim between capital Malé and suburb Villimalé.

The government plans to unveil new currency notes and has commissioned a replica of an ancient Maldivian village and a legendary boat used by three Maldivian brothers in the sixteenth century in the guerrilla war against the Portuguese occupation.

The home ministry is expected to announce more events in the coming weeks.

The government has also started decorating the streets of Malé with national flags.

The Independence Day celebrations have drawn criticism over the lack of transparency of expenses made out of the state budget. However, the ‘Independence 50′ office under the home ministry has said that most of the work is done by volunteers.

The opposition has also criticised the government for holding independence celebrations soon after jailing opposition leaders including ex-president Mohamed Nasheed on terrorism charges.

The opposition had held daily protests and two mass demonstrations on February 27 and May 1. Nearly 200 people were arrested from the May Day protest.

The local government authority has meanwhile suspended two councillors three councillors of the Alif Alif atoll council over a resolution declaring they will not participate in activities organised by the government to mark the golden jubilee of independence.

Photo from Commissioner of Police’s official Facebook Page

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High turnout in Dhiggaru by-election

Some 82 percent of eligible voters have cast ballots in the parliamentary by-election for Dhiggaru constituency today.

Election Commission (EC) figures show some 2017 of the 2,555 voters had voted by 4:00pm. The commission has closed all six ballot boxes and has started counting votes.

Official results will be announced by 8:30pm tonight.

The main contenders are the ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) candidate Ahmed Faris Maumoon leading and the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) candidate Ahmed Raazee.

The election was triggered by the imprisonment of ruling party MP Ahmed Nazim on corruption charges in April.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Faris promised development for the five islands in the Dhiggaru constituency.

“I don’t want to compare myself with the other candidates. That’s a job for the voters. I have already stated my credentials and what I will do for the constituency. The voters will weigh and decide,” he said.

“Over 90 percent of people I met agree that this constituency has had some development over the years. I am looking to speed things up and bring even more development to this constituency.”

Faris is the son of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and the nephew of president Abdulla Yameen. The opposition has accused the PPM of vote-buying and bribery after PPM donated x-ray machines and air conditioning units to two islands in the constituency.

President Yameen last week pledged to provide a 140 kilo-watt power generator for Dhiggaru and said he will prioritize PPM constituencies for development projects.

The government has also signed an agreement with the state-owned Maldives Transport and Construction Company to build a harbour in Dhiggaru.

Dhiggaru is a PPM stronghold and a support base of the former president.

The MDP candidate, Raazee, said he hoped voters will elect him, and condemned what he called efforts by the PPM to deceive people.

“The ruling party has tried to influence elections. They have brought in excavators and construction materials at the Dhiggaru, Maduvvari and Muli harbors, to trick people to think there will be development,” he said.

“But I’m sure people will not fall for that and elect me. I am from the constituency and I know their needs.”

Raazee also condemned a police raid of a boat carrying some 40 voters from Malé to Dhiggaru last night.

Police prevented the boat from leaving the Malé harbor at 2am last night until they searched all individuals on board on suspicion of carrying drugs. The police dog squad was brought on to the boat to search for drugs.

The boat was only cleared at 1:00pm today. A police media official declined to comment on the matter.

The boat’s captain Adam Waheed said all passengers had left Malé on speed boats, but three of the crew on board will not be able to vote as the journey will take seven hours.

No drugs were found on board, he said.

Speaking to reporters outside the Dhiggaru polling booths, EC member Ahmed Akram said the commission had received only one complaint.

“It was regarding some envelopes distributed in Muli last night with campaign and anti-campaign material after the official campaigning time closed,” he said.

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Comment: Living with Water

This article is by Ms. Shoko Noda, the UN Resident Coordinator, UNDP Resident Representative and UNFPA Representative in Maldives.

Today, 5th June is World Environment Day, a day celebrated every year around the world to encourage awareness and action for the environment. This year’s theme, “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care”, highlights the global citizen’s responsibility towards sustainable living as a way of securing our future; one that is extremely vulnerable for the Maldives, a country often considered Ground Zero for Climate Change, due to the challenges surrounding the element of water alone.

I had only been in the Maldives for 2 months at the time when the “Malé Water Crisis” occurred in mid-December last year. An electric fire at the only water treatment plant in Malé caused an almost complete disruption to the water supply in the capital for about four days. The 133,000 residents of Malé had their first experience of what it means to be taken away the access to one of the basic necessities of life, even if for only a few hours per day. In Malé there was a feeling of panic and worry as people feared violent outbreaks if water became too scarce. Mockingly came the rain, which many believed was a blessing, but this was soon replaced with frustration as the people were ill-prepared to collect the rain water.

The experience was truly an eye-opener for myself as a newcomer to the Maldives. It highlighted how vulnerable the country is to any type of man-made or natural disasters. In stark contrast to my last post in Nepal, a mountainous land-locked country, I had a lot to learn about the true challenges facing this small island nation.

Indeed, the Maldives is increasingly becoming vulnerable to climate change and water-related disasters. More intense weather, in the form of high winds and rough seas, are increasingly causing damage and flooding throughout the country. The situation is worsened by the effects of erosion, which is reported by majority of inhabited islands. Where erosion has occurred the impact of seasonal flooding, caused by high tide, is increased dramatically. Furthermore, population pressures, coupled with the small nature of islands, mean that today many people live within 100m of the shoreline. The result is that the impact of disasters on the people of Maldives is manifold.

On the other hand, during the north-east monsoon when the dry season begins, the now familiar problem of water shortages sets in. The fragile freshwater lens in most of the islands has been contaminated either due to weak sewerage systems or salt water intrusion. The current methods of collecting rainwater in household tanks are often insufficient due to growing populations making all communities highly dependent on bottled water. In many remote islands, water-shortages are an annual occurrence.

The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) reports that in the past 4 years, on average 68 islands each year have requested emergency water and water has been supplied at a cost of over USD 1 million. Even though the whole nation is surrounded by water, the crisis made everyone pause for a moment to reflect on the challenges that this deceptively abundant yet precious resource can cause. The country’s vulnerability to climate change hits home where the dual challenges of flooding and prolonged dry season compound each other, a reality which exists for most islands in the Maldives.

Much is already being done for these islands to increase their resilience to natural disasters and the longer term impacts of climate change. Coastal protection in the form of seawalls, groynes, sandbags and other measures to combat erosion have almost become the norm for all islands. The country’s capacity to manage disaster risks is increasing as NDMC’s capacity grows. Community-based Disaster Risk Management Plans are a start in this regard together with the establishment of island-level Disaster Management Units and the vital Disaster Management Bill with our support.

Innovative approaches and localised solutions are also being explored through partnership between the Government and UNDP. For example, in Gaafu Dhaalu Thinadhoo a combination of hard and soft engineering measures are being used for coastal modification to address the island’s prevalent coastal problems. Similarly, longer term solutions on flood management are being demonstrated in Haa Dhaalu Kulhudhuffushi. Excess rainwater will be channelled to recharge groundwater as well as a method to combat flooding that is becoming common in many islands.

To bring an end to the problems of water shortages, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) systems are being considered the most appropriate solution for the islands in the Maldives. It combines rainwater harvesting, desalination and groundwater recharge as a tripartite solution. Currently piloted in three islands in the Maldives through partnership with the Government, UNDP and UNOPS with the support of the Adaptation Fund, these solutions are already being replicated in several other islands.

In the future, these solutions can be further improved. The power hungry desalination process can use solar energy. Excess water from household roofs can be piped into the system. In combination with sewerage solutions, ground water recharge can improve the quality of the fresh water lens.

The water related challenges predicted worldwide are a reality for the Maldives already. The good news is, we have started employing innovative solutions that fit our current and future needs. The protection and sustainable use of the most important natural resource for life should be a priority for us all. On this World Environment Day UNDP renews its commitment to work hand in hand with the government and communities for sustainable use and management of water resources.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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