Maldives Eyes Floating Golf Course as Sea Rises

Jakarta Globe, April 02, 2010

An slight increase in sea levels could make the Maldives uninhabitable by 2100. (AFP Photo)

The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government says it is looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that float.

An increase in sea levels of just 18-59 centimeters would make the Maldives — a nation of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean — virtually uninhabitable by 2100, the United Nations’ climate-change panel has said.

President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed a fight for survival, and last month he signed a deal with a Dutch company to study proposals for a floating structure that could support a convention center, homes and an 18-hole golf course.

“It is still early stages and we are awaiting a report on the feasibility,” a government official said.

The company, Dutch Docklands, is building floating developments in the Netherlands and Dubai.

There was no immediate comment from the firm, but its Web site said it undertook projects that make “land from water by providing large-scale floating constructions to create similar conditions as on land.”

The Maldives began work on an artificial island known as the Hulhumale near the crowded capital of Male in 1997 and more than 30,000 people have been settled there to ease congestion.

The capital, which has a population of 100,000, is already protected from rising sea levels by a $30 million sea wall, and the government is considering increasingly imaginative ways to combat climate change.

Nasheed, who staged the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in October to highlight his people’s plight, has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are submerged.

He has also pledged to turn his nation into a model for the rest of the world by becoming “carbon neutral” by 2020.

His plan involves ending fossil-fuel use. 

AFP

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Govt approves plan to rent Tabuhan Island to Maldives investor

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Thu, 04/01/2010 12:04 PM

Minister of Marine Resources and Fisheries Fadel Muhammad has approved the Banyuwangi regental administration's plan to rent Tabuhan Island to Maldives investor PT Safari International Resort.

"A recommendation letter has been received by the Banyuwangi regent," head of the investment section of the administration's development planning agency Made Mahartha said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com on Thursday.

The 5.33-hectare island, which is located at Bengkak village in Wongsorejo district, will be developed into a marine tourist site to be equipped with lodging facilities.

The island, which is at the Bali straits water, is now vacant. Its surroundings is well-known for its beautiful coral reefs, Made said.

Made explained that according the proposal, PT Safari will rent the island for 30 years at a cost of Rp 100 billion.

Banyuwangi Regent Ratna Ani Lestari, he said, had set up a regional coordination team led by administration secretary Sukandi.

The team will be in charge of further deliberating the cooperation draft, which will cover, among others, obligations and responsibilities of the two sides, revenue sharing scheme and environmental insurance.

"This has been regulation in Government Regulation No. 50/2007 on regional cooperation implementation," Made said.

The plan to rent the island had earlier sparked pros and cons from environmental activists, who demanded that the Banyuwangi administration strictly watch out the cooperation implementation, especially the environment preservation.