Housing ministry – Page 3 – Minivan News

Gan Council fears “health disaster” after severe sewage spill

Laamu Atoll Gan Island Council has raised fears of an imminent “health disaster” following a severe sewage spill on the island.

The spill was caused by damage to pumps and septic tanks in the sewage treatment facility. Recent rains have spread the sewage throughout the island, Gan Council President Ahmed Salah told Minivan News today.

The council is trying to contain the sewage, but have received no help from any government office, Salah said.

“The pumps in the system are not working, and the [septic] tank is also damaged. So when sewage effluent gathers in the tank it overflows and spills out. But this has got worse with the rainy season, the waste is being carried across the island through the puddles. And sometimes it is overflowing from the toilets, leaving houses and rooms filled with waste,” he said.

The spill poses “enormous health risks,” Salah said. Exposure to sewage can cause several infections including gastroenteritis of the stomach and hepatitis.

“We have asked the hospital to be on alert for a medical situation, and we have also informed the Ministry of Health and other authorities. We told them we are facing great health risks here and we have asked them to take action,” he said.

According to the council similar incidents have occurred on the island during the rainy season. The 5,500 strong population is among the biggest in south central Maldives.

“It was the first thing we discussed in the new council as well. We informed the ministries, we even went to Malé to bring this to their attention. We wrote to the disaster management center, but no action has been taken yet,” Salah said.

The sewage system at fault is located at the new settlement of tsunami-displaced population that moved to Gan from Mundoo and Kalhaidhoo Islands in 2007.

The sewerage project was funded and implemented by the International Federation of Red Cross Societies (IFRC) as part of their tsunami recovery work. After the project was completed, it was handed over to the government of Maldives.

Salah said no one has taken ownership of the system since it was handed over and said he believed the spill had taken place due to lack of maintenance.

“No one took the responsibility for managing it. The council doesn’t have the financial capacity to handle it, and without any ownership and repair it eventually broke down. We have discussed the issue with Fenaka [state-owned utility corporation] as well, but they won’t take charge until the system fully repaired. Their estimated cost for repairing it is above MVR1 million (US$ 64,850),” he said.

The council is now trying to manage the situation by using a mobile tank called bowser to drain the waste into the sea. The bowser was donated as part of the sewage system.

“It [the bowser] has a very small tank, even with 20-30 rounds we are unable to drain it to a level where people can use the toilet. We are trying to find a way to control the situation even if it is by pumping it all in to the sea,” he said noting that some households are not using the toilet.

When the council approached the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) for a solution, the office said they could not offer any help as the sewage spill cannot be considered a disaster.

Speaking to Minivan News today, an NDMC official confirmed that the situation cannot be considered a disaster as it had developed gradually. The NDMC said the sewage project was the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing.

However, the Housing Ministry has said the Ministry of Environment and Energy was responsible for the project. The Environment Ministry was unable to comment on the issue at the time of publication.

A MVR85 million sanitation facility is being built on Gan Island for areas that do not have a sewage system with assistance from the French government.

Salah said the council has proposed to join the old and new systems, but experts have said the task is impossible as the two systems are incompatible.

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Tata Housing group agrees to revised contract, ready to resume construction

After resolving contractual disputes with the government, Apex Realty has announced it is prepared to resume work on its Malé housing projects as soon as the agreed amendments are introduced into the contract.

“We are committed to the Maldives project and can start the project within 45 days after the final nod is received from the Housing Ministry and contract amendment is signed,” said Mr Sandeep Ahuja, Director at Apex.

The project – a joint venture between the Maldives Housing Ministry and the housing arm of multinational conglomerate Tata – was agreed under the government of Mohamed Nasheed in 2011.

The combination of commercial and social housing was due to be completed within three years before stalling following disputes with the new government over the terms of the contract.

One of the four sites given to Apex for development was subsequently earmarked by the new administration as the site of a new Supreme Court, leading to reportedly heated negotiations.

“Apex Realty officials have undertaken multiple rounds of meetings with the Economic Council of the Cabinet and the Ministry of Housing to find a mutually acceptable solution to contractual issues,” read an Apex press release today.

The Apex group revealed that it had indicated its acceptance of the revised terms to the Housing Ministry.

“Apex Realty is now waiting for Ministry of Housing to enter into an amendment to the contract to record the modified terms. Apex Realty is willing to recommence the work and finish the project in the shortest possible time.”

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Housing Ministry to renovate, then replace Dharubaaruge

Housing Minister Dr Mohamed Muizzu has revealed plans to replace the Dharubaaruge convention center with a new facility.

Speaking with local news outlet Haveeru, Dr Muizzu explained that the ministry’s development plan will consist of two phases – the first involving renovation to the current premises while bidding is opened for a new facility.

This phase is to be followed by the eventual construction of a new convention center on the same site, explained the minister.

“Since there isn’t another place like Dharubaaruge in Malé city, we are trying to renovate the place without closing it down, by dividing the work into two phases. That would make this easier,” he told Haveeru.

The announcement follows the takeover of the facility by the central government earlier this month after repeated wrangling over ownership of the premises over the past two years.

Police moved in to enforce the central government’s reclamation of the premises from Malé City Council after a cabinet decision in late March.

Council members were reportedly told that the government was taking charge of the center as it was not being adequately maintained, though the council – reliant on central government funding – claimed it had not received the requested maintenance budget.

The Dharubaaruge takeover is the latest in an ongoing dispute between the ministry and opposition-dominated council regarding ownership of land in the capital city.

Originally built for the 5th SAARC summit in 1990 — Dharubaaruge is rented out for events, press conferences and private functions.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed handed the center over to the city council with the establishment of a local government system in 2011.

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Housing Ministry authorised to withdraw land owned by Malé City Council: Civil Court

The Housing Ministry has the authority withdraw lands under the Malé City Council if the cabinet decides such lands are required for social, economic and national security purposes, the Civil Court has ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling came in response to a request temporary injunction by the owners of Lemongrass restaurants after police forcibly halted construction of a new restaurant in Malé’s carnival area last week.

The plot had been leased to Lemon Grass restaurants by Malé City Council.

But the Housing Ministry decided to take the plot back and ordered the police to halt ongoing work. Owners of Lemongrass restaurants told local media over 80 percent of construction had been completed.

The Civil Court ruled that when lands leased to people under third party agreements are withdrawn the government would have to pay compensation to the tenant.

On March 27, following a cabinet decision, the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure decided to take over all major lands in Malé City from the city council.

The Housing Ministry and Malé City Council have clashed periodically over the ownership of land in Malé.

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muiz told newspaper Haveeru at the time that the lands that will be taken from the council including the artificial beach, carnival area, south harbour area, lands near the T-Jetty, Usfasgandu area on the southeast, and Dharubaaruge multipurpose hall.

Muiz said all of the plots were to be developed under a master plan formulated by the ministry, and that there were no problems between the council and the ministry.

“We are taking almost all large plots [in Malé]. We will very soon inform the council in writing that those have been taken [from the council]. We will work with the council. I don’t think this will create any problems,” Muiz said.

‘’The government has the authority to take such lands to utilise them for social and economic purposes.”

Muiz further said that all arrangements of transfer, including the issue of any existing contracts with a private party, will be dealt according to the laws and regulations.

Director of Lemongrass Ahmed Atheef Hussain told Sun Online that the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure had claimed that the restaurant was being constructed in violation of regulations, and requested police to halt the work.

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Economic Council to decide on how to proceed with TATA flats

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muizzu has stated on Monday that a decision on how to proceed with the flats constructed by Indian construction Company TATA can be made only after the Economic Council deliberates and decides on the matter.

The minister stated that it had been noticed that no physical work had been constructed at the site of the flats since the structure had been built. He said that the government has already held discussions with the subcontractor after work was halted.

“At the time, the concerns they raised had to do with agreements and amendments made to agreements before we started leading the ministry during the Waheed administration,” Muizzu is quoted as saying in local media.

“As the matters were raised outside the agreed contract, and the whole concept is a developer finance concept project, we were unable to accommodate their requests and we left it at that then.”

According to Muizzu, the current delays are due to the government’s refusal to conduct any work outside of the agreement.

“It is when the Economic Council decides on the manner that we will know how to proceed. We have even been deliberating with the Indian High Commission about the matter of work on these flats being halted,” he stated.

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Project for 100 houses in Vilifushi initiated

The Housing Ministry has begun a project to build 100 houses for the people of Vilifushi in Thaa atoll who were displaced by the 2004 tsunami.

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muizzu told Sun Online today that this first phase of the project will be started within the next two weeks and should be completed in 12 months.

The houses, for which all residents of the island are welcome to apply, will cost MVR2,500 per month over a 15 year period, said Muizzu.

After being devastated by the tsunami, with the entire community – over 1,800 people – displaced, Vilifushi was later reclaimed using donor aid before resettlement began in 2009.

Last December, President Abdulla Yameen noted that 427 families throughout the country still required permanent housing after the tsunami, pledging to rehouse all those in need.

The Human Rights Commission also noted that it continued to receive complaints from survivors, largely regarding lack of permanent shelter, compensation for damages caused to houses and delays in housing projects.

The 2004 tsunami resulted in 82 deaths and 26 missing persons in the Maldives. Figures from the UN show that the disaster displaced nearly 10 percent of the Maldives’ population, severely damaging a quarter of inhabited islands with 14 completely evacuated.

Noomadi Resorts Private Limited has been commissioned to carry out the resort, reported Sun.

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Parents protest as disabled childrens’ school faces closure

The parents of pupils at Male’s Care Development Centre (CDC) gathered at the artificial beach on Thursday, imploring the government to fulfil its obligation to provide their children with an education.

Amongst the placards held aloft, some read, “Don’t deprive us of education”, whilst others asked “Should disabilities be a reason for being maginalised?”

More specifically, one sign read “Give the CDC a building”.

The Maldives’ only specialist school for disabled children is facing closure after the government failed to follow up on a verbal agreement to extend the lease on its new premises, Deputy Director of the Care Society Aishath Looba explained.

“All children with disabilities should be able to go to school, and the government schools don’t have the opportunity for all of them…a lot of children who come to the Care Society have severe disabilities and it is the only service they receive in the country,” said Looba.

“If the Care Society could not continue with the services provided at the CDC, a lot of the children would have no other place to go. The government are obligated to provide those services for them.”

With finances for the current premises only secured until December, the 41 children – of varying mental and physical disabilities – are facing a future without their constitutional right to an education free from discrimination.

Up until July this year, the Care Society had been running the school from a rent-free premises, but the ending of this agreement has seen the group forced to find an additional MVR48,000 (US$3,100) a month.

The government has provided a new building – just yards from the site of yesterday’s protest – but the extensive repairs needed have meant that the building is unsuitable without substantial investment.

“Renovation is not the word – we have to construct the building,” said Looba

With the lease on this new property set to expire in 2015, Looba explained that this uncertainty was deterring new investors.

“We have been trying to increase the duration of the period, a lot of people have said they could help if the period was longer – say 20-30 years.”

“There’s no choice left without the school”

One parent at today’s demonstration explained the great sacrifice she and her husband had made to bring her children to Male’ from Noonu Atoll to receive the education unavailable to them in the atolls.

“As a parent, I believe even children with disability have to become part of society,” said Ameena, who estimated that up to half of the pupils had been brought to Male’ solely to attend the CDC.

“There’s no choice left without the school. When the CDC closes, the only choice is to return to the island, there is no sustainability in Male’.”

Looba urged the government to decide whether it considered a specialised school important, regardless of who provides these vital services.

She went on to suggest that the verbal agreement for lease extension given earlier this year may have simply been a government ploy to prevent similar demonstrations.

Looba also cited political state of the country as one of the reasons why new sponsors for individual children had been hard to come by in recent months.

“Rent is secured up to the end of december – half from Universal, some from Bandos, and some from the Islamic Ministry. But if we have to try so hard to secure the rent, how can we run the programmes?”

“When we started we had to beg the parents to send their children to school, now the parents are coming and begging us to take their children to school. We have come a long way and the Care Society deserves more respect and support from everyone, especially the government,” she explained.

“There are so many thousands of kids who really require support and are not getting anything special in the islands. This is an example for all parents that they can be an advocate for their children, we want to see parents in the islands saying you should take our children to school.”

“We won’t stop it – even if we don’t get any support – we are going to continue that work.”

At the time of publication Minivan News was awaiting response from the Ministry of Education, whilst ministers from the Housing Ministry were not responding to calls.

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Former President Nasheed calls on MDP to vacate ‘Usfasgandu’ in favour of meeting halls

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has called on Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters to vacate the ‘Usfasgandu’ protest area in favour of the various ‘jagaha’ (meeting halls) established across the capital ahead of September’s election.

Nasheed was quoted in local media as requesting that the opposition party’s supporters make use of the official meeting areas being set up by the MDP across Male’, rather than the protest site that has been the basis for many of the party’s activities since the controversial transfer of power last year.

“I will ask members of the MDP’s executive committee very sincerely to clear Usfasgandu. We are a party that wisely takes whatever steps are needed at the time,” he was quoted as saying by Haveeru.

Usfasgandu, which is presently being leased to the party, has been at the centre of an ongoing legal dispute over the last 12 months between the MDP-dominated Male City Council (MCC) and the government’s Housing Ministry, which is seeking to claim ownership of the site.

Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr Mohamed Muiz told Sun Online last week that a notice had been sent to the MCC requesting they clear and vacate the area by June 27 – or else police would be requested to assist in clearing the site.

Dr Muiz was not responding to calls from Minivan News at time of press, while Deputy Housing Ministers Abdulla Muththalib and Mohamed Faiz today declined to comment on the matter.

A police media official, who declined to be named, said it had also received no communications from the ministry requesting assistance to clear Usfasgandu by tomorrow’s supposed deadline.

Despite reports of the Housing Ministry’s intent to reclaim the Usfasgandu area, Mayor Ali Manik said no order had been received by the MCC requesting the land be returned. He added that any decision on whether to clear the are could only be made by the MDP.

The MDP told Minivan News today that while it has also not received any notice of attempts by the state to clear the site, the importance of the area to the party had “waned” as its campaigning spread across the capital and country ahead September’s election.

The opposition party said it intended to focus on local campaigning through the establishment of various jagaha across the Maldives.

Nasheed today opened the latest MDP jagaha adjacent to the country’s justice building – despite authorities contesting the legality of its location. The MDP contends that the jagaha was further than a distance of 50 feet from the building as demanded by law, and was therefore legally situated.

Relevance

Addressing the future of Usfasgandu, MDP MP and Spokesperson Hamid Abdul Ghafoor said there was a “general feeling” within the party that Usfasgandu was believed to have served its purpose.

He added that the party had been considering vacating the area over the last week in order to limit the possibility of confrontations with authorities.

Ghafoor added that an official parade to commemorate eight years since the founding of the MDP would begin at Usfasgandu this evening, but its relevance as an area for campaigning was already waning with the establishment of jagaha areas.

“The general view of the party is that the area is not really useful anymore and is slightly irrelevant to our campaigning, though I understand there is nostalgia among many people for the area,” he said. “In time, I think we would have seen the site slowly die out.”

Intimidation allegations

Ghafoor alleged that reports of the Housing Ministry seeking to reclaim Usfasgandu reflected an attempt by the state to intimidate political rivals such as the MDP and its supporters ahead of an election.

He claimed that this intimidation was part of attempts by the state to destabilise the country ahead of September’s presidential election in order to cast doubt on whether the country was capable of holding a national vote.

Ghafoor said as a result the MDP was wary of any potential clashes with authorities, such as those seen during attempts to evict the party from Usfadsgandu in May last year. He said that many in the party believed that keeping the area was “not worth” the potential for unrest should police intervene.

Land dispute

Although Usfasgandu was later returned to the MDP after the clashes in May 2012, police once again moved to cordon off the area by January 2013 at the request of the High Court.

The court at the time ordered that Usfasgandu not be occupied by any party until it delivered a verdict over a dispute between the Housing Ministry and the MCC over ownership of the site.

In early February, the Civil Court ordered the MCC to clear the land plot and hand it over to the Housing Ministry, though the order was later overturned by the High Court. The High Court ruled that the Civil Court order had failed to follow legal procedures in its hearing of the case and was therefore unlawful.

Usfasgandu was handed back to the MDP by the MCC in March of this year, with the council claiming at the time that no other party had requested use of the land at the time.

A spokesperson for the High Court today said that no further rulings had been made concerning the legal ownership at present, with its previous order overturning the Civil Court still said to stand.

Despite now opting to vacate the site, Ghafoor claimed that the lack of notification from the Housing Ministry over its attempt to reclaim the Usfasgandu reflected a further breakdown in communication between state departments.

“The Housing Ministry had been completely isolated on this matter and no one seems to be taking it seriously,” he said.

President’s Office Media Secretary Masood Imad was not responding to calls at time of press from Minivan News.

‘Paint war’

The MDP’s political rivals have continued to criticise the MCC for providing a plot of land to the opposition party, expressing concern that their supporters had not been given similar opportunities in the capital.

Government-aligned Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Nihan alleged last week that it was this sense of disparity among political rivals that had led to a so-called ‘paint war’ across the capital resulting in private property and even plant-life painted in political colours.

Supporters of the PPM were accused of covering state property and government buildings, such as walls outside the new Supreme Court compound in Male’, in the party’s official colour of pink.

PPM MP Nihan meanwhile accused MDP supporters of instigating the painting throughout Male’ by covering entire areas of the capital such as Usfasdgandu in yellow, leading to reprisals from rival supporters.

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