The government has decided to lease 14 new islands for resort development to finance regional airports and housing projects.
According to the government gazette, six islands will be leased on a tender basis to develop regional airports in Dhaalu Atoll Kudahuvadhoo, Thaa Atoll Thimarafushi, Shaviyani Atoll Funadhoo, Gaaf Dhaal Maavedhhoo, Gaa Alif Atoll Raavereha and Fuvahmulah.
A further eight islands will be leased to raise funds for housing development and housing subsidies.
President Mohamed Nasheed has discussed the importance of land use planing for a sustainable economy in his weekly address on the Voice of Maldives last Friday.
President Nasheed said planning land use needed to insure everyone’s interests and needs, and noted that land was one of the most important assets in the Maldives.
He said when planning how to use land, it is necessary to facilitate housing for all citizens, as well as providing equal economic opportunities for everyone and minimising negative impacts on the environment and people.
President Nasheed said the government will create a register of all sandbanks and small islands “in the near future.”
He said unused or abandoned land in the islands posed difficulties, and noted that some people were reclaiming “vast swaths of land” and exploiting them for economic benefits, but the state or public were not getting “due profits.”
President Nasheed said the Cabinet is working on a framework on land use laws, keeping in mind relevant laws, regulations and other historical documents.
The bill was widely based upon the Residential Tenancies Act (1987) of New South Wales, Australia, and proposes the creation of a tenancy deposit scheme, with deposits made at the start of a tenancy to be held by the government rather than individual landlords.
There would be a limit on how much the deposit could be and tenants would have the right to appeal if they believe they are not getting a fair rental price.
When he first presented the bill in 2009, Nasheed told Minivan News stricter housing regulations are necessary in a city as overcrowded as Malé, where demand for accommodation dramatically outstrips supply, leaving tenants vulnerable to unscrupulous landlords.
Even then, Nasheed admitted the bill was controversial and said he was unsure it would be passed as it was, but now that it has been accepted by the Majlis, Nasheed said he has “greater hope that a compromise will be reached between those who agree with it and those who don’t.”
“I basically looked at it from a consumer protection point of view,” he said. “So far [housing] has been regulated by ordinary terms of contract.”
Nasheed said he wanted to protect the rights of both the tenant and the landlord, and hopes the bill will help the market by leaving “less room for undue influence.”
The bill was accepted by 45 votes, “seven votes above majority,” Nasheed noted. It will now be sent to a committee before being sent back to Parliament for approval.
“I hope it will all be over in six months,” Nasheed added.
Demolishing a house in Malé
A holistic approach to the housing crisis
Minister for Housing, Transport and Environment, Mohamed Alsam, said the bill “has got rather ridiculous things in it. It’s very foolish to control the market.”
Aslam said the government was trying a more “holistic approach” to the housing crisis in Malé by “diverting demand elsewhere.”
“It’s a national development issue,” he said. “Other parts of the country aren’t attractive enough.”
Aslam said that is where the government’s decentralisation plan comes into play. “We have always seen the issue of housing as a broad development issue, not an isolated thing. If we leave Malé as it is, no law will regulate it.”
Although the minister did admit “certain elements of [the bill] are good,” he said “I don’t think I would go with it.”
Housing in Malé
With a growing population of over 100,000, Malé is among the most densely populated cities on the planet, and the housing crisis is only getting worse as more people migrate from other islands and demands grow, allowing rental prices to spike.
Due to the high demand and low supply for housing in Malé, many people who own land choose to rent it out for extra income, either by renting a part of their house or giving the land for the construction of apartment buildings.
A 2008 report by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) found that 68 percent of families in Malé were living in accommodation that “qualifies as slums by UN definitions.”
Additionally, they found survey participants spent 85 percent of their income on rent and utilities in Malé and Vilingili. They also found some landlords were increasing rent “at will” and forcibly evicting tenants if they were unable to meet their ever-increasing demands.
Effects of overcrowded areas
There are many other issues with overpopulation besides money and rental control; health problems, psychological welfare and even sexual abuse have all been directly connected to living in overcrowded areas.
Dr Jorge Mario Luna, World Health Organization (WHO) representative to the Maldives, wrote: “Several social problems are also faced within the household including child abuse, psychological impact in growing up in areas of overcrowding, breakdown of many families due to the hardship faced by them stimulating a ripple effect of social disorder for the families, particularly the children caught in the situation.”
Buildings in Malé
Dr Luna added: “It is important to note that the major drivers, or social determinants, of health in urban settings are beyond the health sector, including physical infrastructure, access to social and health services, local governance, and the distribution of income and educational opportunities.”
A new bill has to regulate rent in Malé been proposed in Parliament by Independent MP Mohamed Nasheed, reports Miadhu.
Nasheed said the bill aims not to control rent, but to set certain standards for the real estate business.
Nasheed noted that in a time when human rights have become key in policy-making, this bill would protect the rights of both owners and tenants. The bill would also form a tribunal to arbitrate rent cases.
Most of the MPs supported the bill, which could help with overcrowding in Malé. But it was proposed that the bill also include rented offices and businesses, so it will not reduce the cost of goods and services.
Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali said the bill could potentially harm the real estate industry.
He said the government should not intervene, because fewer people would enter the market and fewer would construct new homes.
Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Hamza also said introducing the bill at this moment could hinder construction business, adding that the bill would present challenges to the free-market.
President Mohamed Nasheed has said political rivalry in the islands should not impede their development.
Speaking at Noonu Manadhoo, in the final leg of his visit of the northern atolls, President Nasheed urged all parties to communicate in situations of disputes and disagreements.
He said the government would consider public opinion before implementing all its policies.
He spoke on the measures to be taken in improving the education system. He said school boards were formed in most of the schools and they were given considerable authority in the management of the schools.
The president noted the connection between educating the youth and the future development of the country.
President Nasheed also mentioned the transportation and housing projects being set up for Noonu Atoll.
Dotted with tall palm trees, white sandy beaches and a turquoise blue lagoon, Haa Alifu Hathifushi is the epitome of a beautiful Maldivian island.
At 833 meters in length and 823 meters in width, it’s also very small: “Hathifushi was the smallest inhabited island in the Maldives”, according to the island’s chief, Ibrahim Ali.
Getting to the island is a precarious activity these days – the jetty is in the process of crumbling.
Fallen leaves carpet the floor of the main road, while half-open doors reveal houses falling to ruin, overtaken by creeping vines.
Trees laden with unpicked fruits, bananas, stone apples and coconuts betray the lack of human activity, while clothes still strung on wash lines, books strewn about living rooms, photos hanging on walls show the haste with which the islanders departed.
Mohamed Rasheed, 46 (pictured top right) is one of only three people left on the island.
“It’s not difficult staying here, after all its my birth island,” says Rasheed, who works as the island’s caretaker.
With only three days to move, 127 Hathifushi islanders bundled their most precious possessions into speedboats on 5 July 2007 and made the 45 minute journey to nearby Hanimadhoo.
The abandoned island Hathifushi
Missed chances
“The islanders have wanted to move for 56 years,” says Ali, who now resides in Hanimadhoo but remains chief of the Hathifushi islanders.
Over the years a lot of the islanders migrated to other islands or the capital in search of better education and facilities. For those that remained a way forward seemed to become narrower and narrower.
The islanders asked successive governments to relocate them, but somehow the opportunity never materialised.
Abdul Rahman, 81, one of the oldest Hathifushi islanders, talks of missed chances.
“The first president Mohamed Amin came, next Ibrahim Nasir also came, both talked of relocation to Nolhivaranfaru and said ‘better services would be provided if you move.’”
He adds Amin’s subsequent death a couple of months later, and Nasir’s resignation before he got round to doing it, put an end to that.
Requests were sent to Gayoom’s government.
“In the 90s Atolls Minister Ilyas Ibrahim visited, followed by his successor Abdulla Hameed.”
Choice of Maafilafushi, Hanimadhoo or Kelaa was offered, but the move didn’t materialise as Ilyas fell out with Gayoom and was sentenced to banishment in absentia, while Hameed was promoted to presidential advisor.
From the way he talks, it’s almost as if Rahman believes the relocation was jinxed.
“The last atoll minister in Gayoom’s government, Waheeddeen, got everyone to agree to move to Thulusdhoo,” he says.
Then the tsunami struck, and the islanders were informed that Thulusdhoo had taken in displaced islanders and no longer had space for them.
Although spared from the tsunami, Hathifushi experienced tidal swelling waves three days later.
“The island was flooded except just a tiny part in the middle,” says Ali.
Urgent requests were made, and a visit from the atoll chief, who upon seeing the flooding placed a call to the then president Gayoom, sped up the process.
“Hanimadhoo was ready to welcome us,” says Rahman, talking about how excited the islanders were to finally move. Islanders were advised to rent houses in Hanimadhoo with the money paid to them by the government, a monthly stipend of Rf500 (US$40) per person.
Mohamed Ali, 59, who resides with his family in nearby Hoarafushi, says islanders were told they could chose to move to another island and government would continue to provide them assistance until housing could be built for them.
Abdul Rahman misses life in Hathifushi
The housing dream
Two years and six months later, the islanders still live in rented houses in Hanimadhoo. A frustrated Mohamed Ali says despite informing all the ministries he had moved to Hoarafushi “didn’t receive one cent of assistance, unlike those living in Hanimadhoo.”
The houses that were promised to them still remain a dream.
“President Gayoom promised to build houses within 18 months; his government lost power before he could do that,” says a housewife who lives with her three children on rent.
Numerous islanders say a contract was signed by the previous government to build houses for them.
Ali claims “the previous government very kindly told us that the year we moved they didn’t have money to build houses in that year’s budget and that following year it would be included.”
He adds that more than Rf600,000 (US$46,000) was spent by the previous government in paying off Hanimadhoo islanders who had palm trees and such on a land that the government had designated as the area for building houses.
An islander re-visits her former home
Riddle of the contract
The contract was jointly awarded to Yuman Constructions and Sri Lankan company Isuru Engineering Pvt Ltd. A spokesman for Yuman Construction confirmed the company signed the contract in October 2008.
“We did a survey of the land in Hanimadhoo in October,” he says.
With the change of government in the following month, they were informed that the project could not be continued as “houses cannot be built with non-existent money.”
In March this year the company received the termination letter for the contract.
“No payments had been made by then, as conditions had been attached for payment in the [original] contract,” the spokesman said.
State Minister for the Upper North Province Mohamed Hunaif says the government had no choice.
“The contract had to be terminated; no money was allocated for it by the previous government nor was it mentioned how the money would be found, Hunaif says.
Houses falling to ruin
Waiting for homes
Islanders say that when new president Mohamed Nasheed made a trip to Hanimadhoo last year, he promised them housing by the end of 2009.
“I live in that hope, even though the end of the year is here,” says Ali.
Hunaif says the project is in the pipeline: “We will build houses as soon as we can.”
Asked if it was included in next year’s budget he says “funding is being sourced from outside for it.”
Hunaif claims he had actively pushed for the money and cabinet had decided the houses will be built “as soon as possible. The recession and a lack of funding stopped us from doing it this year.”
He says he can see how difficult it is for the islanders; nevertheless he can’t give a date for when the project will start: “We are waiting for the funding to come through.”
Most islanders are happy about the relocation but say life is difficult without a place of their own. Rahman says they are not informed of what is happening.
He lives with his 60 year-old daughter renting a room in a house – he sleeps in the sitting room.
“If I get a house, at least I can stay there peacefully until my death,” he says.
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