In December of 2019, EPA rejects land reclamation request for Maafaru Airport expansion. However In January of 2020, despite EPA rejects land reclamation request for Maafaru Airport expansion, Ministre of Environment overrides the decision of the EPA and approves the second phase expansion project [8].
The airport expansion project is set to continue unless and until something is done to save this environmentally sensitive and ecologically significant area. Noteworthy points from the EPA decision statement include [6]:
1. The aim of the project “is not a valid justification when compared to the long-term environmental and socio-economic negative impacts that would arise from this project”.
2. “Reclamation works would lead to permanent loss of a large area of Maafaru lagoon, affecting the surrounding coral reef ecosystem.”
3.“Sand borrow site for the reclamation has a rich sea-grass bed, which is a habitat for many juvenile marine lives as well as a sea-turtle grazing area.”
4. “Island is known for sea-turtle nesting, hence the loss of the grazing site as well as the turtle nesting beaches due to predictable erosion, from the activities of this project will have a direct negative impact on the marine life within the vicinity.”[3,4,5]
5. “Dredging the inner lagoon would result in turbidity and sedimentation as well as changes to the hydrodynamics which would most likely result in erosion and accretion of the unprotected coastal areas in the residential side of Maafaru…”
6. “The airport expansion footprint will affect a total of 22,000 trees which is a major portion of the existing vegetation of the island. Furthermore, this area also contains plots allocation for residential buildings, pending constructions. Hence, if the compensation plots are to be allocated from the available land, on the other end of the island, that would mean the last remaining mature vegetation of the island would also be destroyed and Maafaru would be left barren of any of its original mature vegetation.”
Save Maldives Campaign has been advocating to stop environmental destruction since late 2017, specifically in connection with the destruction of Kulhudhuffushi mangroves and wetlands to build an airport. In this case, the campaign has been raising concerns about environmental destruction in many of its forms which has been happening and continuing to happen in the Maldives over the last decade [7].
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