Gayyoom is known internationally as the one who is concerned about the environment and global warming. However, his concerns are only limited to talking and all his actions are proving to be the opposite of what he preaches.
The purpose of this article is to bring these issues to the attention of the Maldivian people and international agencies involved in funding these projects, in the hope that they will take measure to bring a stop to such activities.
Gayyoom’s latest craze to damage our environment is to build a hotel in the South Eastern corner of Male’, the capital of Maldives. The shady area on the east of Dharubaaruge is used by children and adults during all parts of the day. While children use this area to play, adults spend time here to get a breath of fresh air and do their daily exercise. As one third of the Maldivian population live in Male’, people already live in congested houses and not everyone has the benefit of good ventilation or air conditioning. Furthermore, only a handful of Maldivians can afford to pay Rf 300 – 500 to exercise in a gym. These are some of the reasons why a lot of people depend on this area. It is the only place in the vicinity of a residential area that has huge shady trees that people can enjoy.
This being the fact, it is disingenuous for Tourism Ministry to say that no one has complained to them about building a hotel there. Given the group of people who use this space, it is hardly likely that they are even aware of plans to build a hotel in that area. In fact they will not know until the work begins. Therefore it should be the responsibility of the government to consider the damage this will do to the environment and to the people who use the area before finalizing such a project.
Building a hotel in Male’ will bring about lot of negative consequences. Firstly, the only shady area in Male that people have access to will be gone. The locals will not have any access to the area once the hotel has been built. The number of expatriate workers living in this small island will increase again as people will be needed to run the hotel. The big question then is why a hotel in Male’? Do we really need this or is the government doing this just for the ‘n’ number of dollars that has been promised to build a hotel?
It should be noted that this is not the first time that Gayyoom has encouraged environmentally damaging projects in the country and I mean encouraged because his government has done nothing to reverse the situation despite pleas made by the people of Maldives. Just to mention a few:
• Gayyoom’s loyalists from tourism sector are allowed to take sand from areas where such activity is normally prohibited
• Gayyoom’s loyalists are allowed to uproot coconut palms from inhabited islands to use them in resorts.
• Hulhu-Male ferry terminal was built near the area where huge cracks have been discovered in the reef of Male’. Who knows that the cracks have not reached the proposed area to build the hotel?
• A desalination plant is being placed in the only shady area in the island of Hinnavaru in Lhaviyani Atoll. Under the Hinnavaru island development plan, this is not the area allocated for the desalination plant. In fact this area was meant to be kept for the people to enjoy. However Gayyoom is proceeding with this project despite protests from 85% of the people in the island (Minivan Daily, 28 August 2007).
I urge the international agencies involved in these projects to be aware of the damage these projects may cause to our environment and consult with the local people and not just the government before embarking on them. I also urge MPs, the media, Environment and Human Rights NGOs and political parties to pressure the government to stop environmentally damaging activities and preserve our country for future generations.
Courtesy: Minivan News
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