News

Maldives to battle rising seas by building fortress islands

Published

3 years ago

2023/11/26

Tourism accounts for almost one-third of the economy, according to the World Bank. Rising sea levels threaten to swamp the Indian Ocean archipelago, but the new president says he has scrapped plans to relocate citizens and instead will reclaim land and build islands higher. Pic by Ishara Kodikara

By Amal JAYASINGHE

Malé (Maldives) AFP: Rising sea levels threaten to swamp the Maldives and the Indian Ocean archipelago is already out of drinking water, but the new president says he has scrapped plans to relocate citizens. Instead, President Mohamed Muizzu promises the low-lying nation will beat back the waves through ambitious land reclamation and building islands higher — policies, however, that environmental and rights groups warn could even exacerbate flooding risks.

The upmarket holiday destination is famed for its white sand beaches, turquoise lagoons and vast coral reefs, but the chain of 1,192 tiny islands is on the frontlines of the climate crisis and battling for survival. Former president Mohamed Nasheed began his administration 15 years ago warning citizens they might become the world’s first environmental refugees needing relocation to another country.

He wanted the Maldives to start saving to buy land in neighbouring India,Sri Lanka or even far away in Australia.But Muizzu, 45, while asking for $500 million in foreign funding to protect vulnerable coasts, said his citizens will not be leaving their homeland.

“If we need to increase the area for living or other economic activity, we can do that,” Muizzu told AFP, speaking from the crowded capital Male, which is ringed with concrete sea walls.”We are self-sufficient to look after ourselves”.

The tiny nation of Tuvalu this month inked a deal to give citizens the right to live in Australia when their Pacific homeland is lost beneath the seas.But Muizzu said the Maldives would not follow that route.

“I can categorically say that we definitely don’t need to buy land or even lease land from any country,” Muizzu said.Sea walls will ensure risk areas can be “categorised as a safe island”, he said.But 80 percent of the Maldives is less than a metre (three feet) above sea level.And while fortress-like walls ringing tightly-packed settlements can keep the waves at bay, the fate of the beach islands the tourists come for are uncertain.

Tourism accounts for almost one-third of the economy, according to the World Bank.Nasheed’s predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was the first to ring the alarm of the possible “death of a nation”, warning the United Nations in 1985 of the threat posed by rising sea levels linked to climate change.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in 2007 that rises of 18 to 59 centimetres (7.2 to 23.2 inches) would make the Maldives virtually uninhabitable by the end of the century.The warning lights are already flashing red.

Gayoom’s fear of his country running out of drinking water has already come true, as rising salt levels seep into land, corrupting potable water.”Every island in the Maldives has run out of fresh water,” said Shauna Aminath, 38, the environment minister until last week, when Muizzu’s government took power.he said

Almost all of the 187 inhabited islets in the archipelago depend on expensive desalination plants, she told AFP.”Finding ways as to how we protect our islands has been a huge part of how we are trying to adapt to these changes”, Aminath said.

The capital Male, where a third of the country’s 380,000 citizens are squeezed onto a tiny island, is “one of the most densely populated pieces of land in the world” with 65,700 people per square kilometre, according to the environment ministry.A giant sea wall already surrounds the city, but Muizzu said there is potential to expand elsewhere.

Reclamation projects have already increased the country’s landmass by about 10 percent in the past four decades, using sand pumped onto submerged coral platforms, totalling 30 square kilometres (11 square miles).Muizzu, a British-educated civil engineer and former construction minister for seven years, played a key part in that, overseeing the expansion of the artificial island of Hulhumale.

Linked to the capital by a Chinese-built 1.4-kilometre (0.8-mile) bridge, with tower blocks rising high over the blue seas, Hulhumale is double the area of Male, home to about 100,000 people.But environmental and rights groups warn that, while reclamation is needed, it must be done with care.In a recent report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the authorities of failing to implement their own environmental regulations, saying reclamation projects were “often rushed” and lacked proper mitigation policies.

It gave the example of an airport on Kulhudhuffushi, where 70 percent of the island’s mangroves were “buried”, and a reclamation project at Addu which damaged the coral reefs fisherman depended on.”The Maldives government has ignored or undermined environmental protection laws, increasing flooding risks and other harm to island communities,” HRW said.

Ahmed Fizal, who heads the environmental campaign group Marine Journal Maldives (MJM), said he feared politicians and businessmen saw shallow lagoons as potential reclamation sites to turn a quick profit.”You have to ask ‘what is the limit, what is the actual cost of reclamation?’”, he said.

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US-assisted ‘Ice’ detection: NPC to examine IGP’s move to transfer drug-busting team

Published

4 hours ago

2026/10/1

Sahan Weerasooriya

Kodithuwakku / Ekanayake

Senior DIG among those slated for transfer

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The National Police Commission (NPC) is expected to take up Police Headquarters recommendation to transfer a group of police officers responsible for a major ‘Ice’ bust at the Colombo port recently.

NPC sources told The Island that recommendation in respect of transfers was received last week. Sources said that though the NPC was scheduled to meet today (01), whether IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya’s recommendation would be discussed and decided today was not known.

Members of the NPC are retired High Court Judge Lalith Ekanayake (Chairman), K. Karunaharan, Dilshan Kapila Jayasuriya, A.A.M. Illiyas and Jayantha Jayasinghe

The IGP directed the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to probe those who carried out the 31 August, 2026 raid that resulted in the detection of 463 kgs of ‘Ice’ concealed in a container that arrived from Pakistan.

The US Embassy declined to comment on the probe though it declared that the largest ever narcotics detection was made on intelligence made available by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The officers investigated for what an authoritative Headquarters source called shortcomings and lapses on the part of the raiding party, belonged to the Central Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB). Senior DIG Ranmal Kodituwakku who, on behalf of the CCIB, received information directly from the DEA, is among those Police Headquarters wanted to transfer.

CCIB carried out the raid after having obtained a search order from the Aluthgama Magistrate court. Among the suspects taken in this connection are three Pakistani nationals.

News

2027 Budget to be held from 12 Nov. to 14 Dec.

Published

4 hours ago

2026/10/1

Sahan Weerasooriya

* First Reading of the Budget on 7 October

The Committee on Parliamentary Business has decided that the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill for the year 2027 (Budget Speech/presentation of Budget proposals) will take place on 12 November, followed by the Second Reading debate from 13 November to 14 December.

Secretary General of Parliament Kushani Rohanadeera said this had been decided at a meeting of the Committee on Parliamentary Business held recently under the chairmanship of Speaker Dr. Jagath Wickramaratne.

Accordingly, the Appropriation Bill was scheduled to be presented to Parliament for its First Reading on 7 October, the Secretary General said.

It was also decided that the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill (Budget Speech) would be delivered by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in his capacity as the Minister in charge of Finance, on Thursday, 12 November, 2026.

Thereafter, the Second Reading debate will be held for seven days, from 13 November to 20 November. Accordingly, the vote on the Second Reading will be held at 6.00 pm on 20 November.

Thereafter, the Committee Stage debate will be held for 19 days, from 21 November to 14 December , with the vote on the Third Reading of the Budget scheduled for 6.00 pm on 14 December.

During this period, the Budget debate will be held every day, including Saturdays, except on public holidays and Sundays. Parliament is scheduled to meet at 9.30 am on each of these days.

From 9.30 am to 10.00 am each day, time will be allocated for the Parliamentary business specified under Standing Order 22(1) to (6). Thereafter, five Questions for Oral Answers will be taken up from 10.00 am to 10.30 am, followed by one question under Standing Order 27(2) from 10.30 am to 11.00 am.

Accordingly, the debate is scheduled to be held from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm on all days, except the two days on which votes are scheduled to be taken, Motions at the Adjournment Time will be taken up for debate from 6.00 pm to 6.30 pm, based on a 50:50 time allocation between the Government and the Opposition, the Secretary General stated.

It was also approved that during the Second Reading debate, 60% of the debate time will be allocated to the Government and 40% to the Opposition, while during the Committee Stage debate, 40% will be allocated to the Government and 60% to the Opposition.

Furthermore, if a division is called for on an Expenditure Head, relating to a Ministry, the relevant vote will be held at 6.00 pm at the conclusion of the proceedings on the respective day.

News

CB Governor confident over timely disbursement of next IMF tranche; hands post-2027 programme decisions to govt.

Published

4 hours ago

2026/10/1

Sahan Weerasooriya

Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe

By Sanath Nanayakkare

Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe addressed queries on the nation’s IMF bailout programme yesterday and indicated that Sri Lanka expects to reach a Staff-Level Agreement with the Fund shortly, clearing the path for the next tranche of funding under the $3 billion EFF arrangement before the end of the year.

Answering questions on Sri Lanka’s economic path, after the current programme expires in March 2027, Dr. Weerasinghe clarified that seeking a follow-up IMF arrangement was entirely a policy decision for the government rather than the Central Bank, maintaining the institutional boundary between Central Bank operations and political decision-making.

The Governor remained firm in his projection that the national economy would expand by around 4 percent throughout 2026, demonstrating economic resilience, even amid external volatilities, such as high oil prices.

Dr. Weerasinghe expressed confidence in the domestic economy’s underlying momentum. While international financial institutions and multilateral agencies had pegged Sri Lanka’s growth prospects at more conservative levels, typically around 3.0 to 3.5 percent, he emphasised that CBSL’s projections are grounded in continuous analysis of real-time indicators.

“When you compare with several other agencies, their growth projections hover around 3 to 3.5 percent. However, the economy is already growing at around 4 percent. In our projections, the economy will maintain this growth rate of around 4 percent throughout the year,” Governor Weerasinghe said.

He noted that despite mid-year quarter adjustments due to volatile oil prices, real economic indicators, including steady credit expansion across the commercial banking sector and sustained industrial and service activity, indicate that the growth trajectory remains firmly on track above the 4 percent benchmark.

Reiterating the Central Bank’s primary mandate, Dr. Weerasinghe noted that monetary policy actions remained focused on anchoring inflation and curtailing excess demand to prevent runaway price spikes.

On inflation targeting, the Governor mentioned that CBSL had submitted a technical recommendation to the Ministry of Finance to maintain an inflation target of 5 percent (+ or – 2 percent band) over the next three-year horizon.

Responding to inquiries on differing target forecasts announced by external agencies such as the IMF, Dr. Weerasinghe underscored that the Central Bank’s recommendations stem strictly from domestic technical and empirical evaluations.

“Our recommendation is based on pure technical and empirical analysis considering the country’s specific situation. We have recommended maintaining a 5 percent target for the next three years, and the government has accepted this recommendation,” he added.

Regarding foreign exchange management, the Governor noted that the Central Bank continues its active market intervention strategy aimed at smoothing out undue exchange rate volatility rather than resisting natural market trends.

Dr. Weerasinghe concluded that while the short-to-medium-term outlook remained assured, the combination of a steady 4 percent growth target and proactive fiscal measures would firmly anchor macroeconomic stability through 2026 and beyond.