Maamendhoo Waste Management
By: Ibrahim Rif-ath
We are natives to the paradise islands of the Earth, Maldives. For us locals unfortunately we disagree. The beaches are getting flooded with waste as well as our turquoise lagoons and the precious coral gardens. To be from a country where we are surrounded by water, we have no clue of how to manage our waste or even recycle.
“Salaam Alaikum. My name is Habeeb. I am the councilor in Laamu atoll Maamendhoo. My biggest concern is that the waste management on the island is rather poor. I was fortunately to be given the opportunity by U.N.D.P to learn and see how waste is managed in AA. Ukulhas. Ever since my goal has been to create the same waste management system in Maamendhoo.”
Plastic bags are been given freely without any tax when you by a product no matter how small the cost. People are not fully aware of our environmental issues and some of them simply follow ignorance. But what if our oceans get polluted by our own hands, our whole life depends on these oceans, from food to basic income of the country.
“First we conducted some awareness programs on the island informing the community that if we keep continuing to throw our waste around the island we will be facing number of health issues similarly causing a negative impact on the environment and most importantly destructing the precious coral reefs surrounding the island”
Before people called these white sandy beaches “Gondu dhoh” where they point to throw out the dump. So I could only hope for better days and protection of our environment. The average waste generated by a person is 2 kg pounds per day. Rounds up to 1,600 a year. We belong on such a small fraction of the Indian Ocean yet manage to pollute the Indian Ocean with over 0.2% waste y here.
“We advised the locals to separate waste into categories of glass, metal, paper, plastic & general waste. Maamendhoo being well known for our fisheries we allowed fish factories to throw out the fish gall’s into the ocean far from the island. Our initial plan is to collect the waste from each house by help of our workers & pro- vide each house with a dustbin for general waste and categorize bins for other types of waste. Similarly we will be collecting tree debris separately and develop- ing plant fertilizers.”
“Our community wishes and hopes to start a waste management system in our near future.”