Ocean Islands on the Verge of Climate Catastrophe

By Henry Srebrnik, [Fredericton, NB] Daily Gleaner

The small Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives, southwest of India and Sri Lanka, is an archipelago with about 516,000 inhabitants. Today, it is on the front lines of dealing with climate change.

The chain is 860 kilometres long and the width varies between 80 to 120 kilometres. There are 1,190 small tropical islands out of which 358 are being currently utilized for human settlements, infrastructure and economic activities.

The highest point in the Maldives is just 1.8 metres above sea level – half the total land area is less than one metre above water. As seas rise they threaten to make the country uninhabitable within perhaps three or four decades.

Rising sea levels also threaten scarce fresh-water resources. Salt water intrusion is gradually encroaching in to the islands’ small pockets of fresh water underground.

The coral reefs surrounding the Maldives are at risk due to gradual warming of sea water. Given that these reefs support both the country’s tourism and fisheries, climate change is a profound threat to its very economic base. 

One proposal, in fact, is to consolidate the population onto 10-15 islands. People living on the smaller lower-lying islands would be relocated to more flood-resistant islands when needed.

One of those is the City of Hope being built on an artificial island called Hulhumalé, near the capital Malé. Once complete, it will accommodate 240,000 people. It is being fortified with walls three metres above sea level.

The Maldives were devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004. Only nine islands escaped any flooding, while 57 others faced serious damage to critical infrastructure.

Fourteen islands had to be totally evacuated, and six were destroyed. A further 21 resort islands were forced to close because of serious devastation. The total damage was estimated at more than $400 million.

The country has also seen considerable political unrest in recent times. A British protectorate after 1887, it attained independence in 1965. Until 1968, the Maldives had been a Muslim sultanate except for a period under the Portuguese in the 16^th century. Their attempts to impose Christianity provoked a local revolt and they were evicted after 15 years.

Islam had been introduced in the 12th century and the country’s current constitution, promulgated in 2008, stipulates that Islam is the state religion.

From 1978 to 2008, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was the president. In 2005, under political pressure, he allowed the formation of political parties and, in 2008, following the country’s first multi-party presidential elections, Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) was elected.

However, public protests against Nasheed led to his resignation in 2012, with Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik taking over. Nasheed stated that he was forced out of office at gunpoint.

Nasheed contested the 2013 election and won the most votes in the first round. But the Supreme Court cited irregularities and annulled it. In the end, Abdulla Yameen, the candidate of the Progressive Party of the Maldives and half-brother of former president Gayoom, assumed the presidency.

Yameen, who employed religion as a tool of identity politics, lost power to Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the MDP. Elected in 2018, Solih is close to Nasheed. The party also won a parliamentary election in April, while Yameen has been sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering.

In 2008 former president Mohamed Nasheed had suggested that the country might be forced to purchase land elsewhere, so that the population could relocate should sea level rise make the islands uninhabitable. This idea, though, is no longer being pursued.

A year later, to publicize the impact of climate change, Nasheed and 11 ministers, all sporting scuba diving equipment, held an underwater cabinet meeting. 

Nasheed went on to pledge to make the country carbon neutral by 2020 and received $6.5 million from the European Union to assist in meeting this goal.

“Climate change is a national security issue for us. It is an existential threat,” he declared recently.

The Maldives played a role at the UN Climate Action Summit held this past September. The country stated it will work towards greener transport, investments in green tourism practices, and climate proofing of all future infrastructure investments. But will this prove enough?