| Abstract: | 1. The domestic airport of Kooddoo was built during 2011 and was officially opened in
2011. This 1,200 m long airstrip in the north eastern side of the Ga Atoll serving the
emerging high-end resorts have become one of the busiest and most important
domestic airports in the south. It is normal to have 7-8 flights per day with mostly
tourist passengers arriving and departing. Also relatively large volume local
passengers make use of the route for transferring to the islands in the south or simply
commuting on business trips. It was also noticed that guests with reputable business
credentials were requesting to resort operators to allow their own air-craft (jet) to fly
Kooddoo direct rather than having inconvenient and long layover times at Hulhule
Ibrahim Nasir International Airport.
2. In order to address this need the Ministry of Tourism (previously Ministry of
Tourism, Arts and Culture) engaged with the Maldives Civil Aviation Authority and
the Ministry of Transport and Communication in a development project to extend the
airstrip and also to upgrade and modernize the airport to provide services to
international standards. Keong Hong Construction Pte Ltd, a reputable property
developer in the region, won the airport development contract through competitive
bidding tendered by the Ministry of Tourism. The negotiated contract agreement
included development of a 50-room city hotel on Kooddoo and also development of
Ga. Maamutaa as an upper-class tourist resort. Under the same agreement the
Kooddoo airport will also be managed by Keong Hong Construction Pte Ltd, who
now has an Aerodrome Certificate to run the airport under their name
3. Following the new Regulation on Reclamation and Dredging of Islands Lagoon and
Reefs a permit for dredging and reclamation work was obtained before the scoping of
the project took place. As such all paper works, including the dredging and
reclamation permit was submitted for the Scoping Meeting held at EPA and was
attended by stakeholders.
4. The scope of this development project is to reclaim about 260 m long and 150 m wide
area from both ends of the island to extend the runway to 1,800 m, to dredge and
create 500 m long entrance channel from the western corner of the reef connected to a
harbour basin with access walkway jetty. The scope also includes the complete
development works of the 50-room city hotel including upgrading of airport services
and equipment following the expansion airport capacity. The most significant
development activity with regards environmental change is the dredging of western
side, reclamation of the both ends and development 25 over-water bungalows on the
shallow lagoon on the western side.
5. Existing environmental conditions have been revised using the comprehensive set of
baseline data gathered for the airport development project in 2011 but supplemented
by additional field data gathered during the visit made in late November 2013. These
have been used to assess and evaluate the environmental impacts from development
activities. For activities with potential to cause significant impacts, appropriate and
practical mitigation measures have been proposed.
6. Since management of Kooddoo airport is now under Keong Hong Construction Pte
Ltd the plan is to upgrade and expand the utility services (production of water,
generation of electrify and overhauling of sewerage system) to meet the additional requirements of the proposed city hotel. As such the developer plans to add on to the
existing structures and arrangements as much as possible to cut down development
costs and improve efficiency.
7. The developer pans to increase current water production capacity of 150 cubic meters
per day to 450 cubic meters per day. This would involve installing and commissioning
of 2 x 150 cubic meters day capacity RO plants. Electricity generation will be
increased from its current capacity of 250kVA to 3110 kVA by adding 2x800 kVA
units and 2x630 kVA units. The current septic sewerage system will be overhauled to
modern Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) plant with a capacity to treat 200 cubic meters
of sewage water per day The outflow water will have negligible amount of coliforms
and so will be used for watering the plants and landscaping work.
8. Installation and commissioning of electricity generation and water production system
will be done as per guidelines of the Maldives Energy Authority and Environmental
Protection Agency respectively. Similarly, to ensure safety, drilling of boreholes for
source water for RO plant and construction of 150,000 liters of fuel storage, and
20,000 liters of petrol will be stored in bunded areas. Environmental issues arising
from these developments have been identified and practical mitigation measures have
been proposed. It has been recommend that water production system and power
generation system should be registered with the authorities before the its full
commissioning.
9. Reclamation works and extension of runway will take place whilst the airport is in
operation. In order to avoid disruption of flight schedules it is advised the
developer/contractor provide method statements, including details on plans and
schedule of activities that should be agreed in consultation with the Civil Aviation
Authority. Coordination should be maintained at all times between the Air-traffic
control tower and developer/contractor. Fortunately since the developer and airport
management is the same company it is envisaged that there should not be any
problems for this coordination.
10. The estimated volume of material recovered from dredging /excavation works is
around 70,000 cubic meters. However, the estimated volume required for reclamation
is estimated at 120,000 cubic meters. Alternative borrow areas have been identified to
make up for this short fall. The issues were discussed at the Scoping Meeting and it
was agreed that area on the south eastern side where the reef-flat is widest may be
identified as a potential borrow area. Climate condition and orientation of the
Kooddoo reef is such that lagoon often times becomes rough, thus prohibitive safe
entry. As such hard structures (breakwaters) have been proposed for the channel and
the harbor basin.
11. The proposed reclamation work on either end of the island extends close to the reef
edge, creating the possibility of blocking the water exchange from the eastern and
western side. It was noted that this may cause disruption of the established longshore
drifts flow around the island creating areas of pockets of erosion and accretion. Since
it will be difficult to predict such changes, appropriate environmental monitoring have
been proposed. The developer/operator is encouraged to follow the monitoring
programme and report to the authorities on a regular basis. Environmental monitoring
allows detecting environmental change so that appropriate remedial action may be
taken or addressed in a timely manner. 12. A Leopold Matrix has been used to classify the magnitude and importance of
possible impacts which may arise during the constructional and operational phase of
the project. Leopold Matrix is the most widely used methodology for identifying the
impact of a project on the environment. It is a two dimensional matrix which cross
references between the activities which are foreseen to have potential impacts on the
environment and the existing conditions (environmental and social) which could be
affected. It was concluded that the short term minor to moderate impacts as identified
above outweigh the medium to long term socio-economic benefits to the region, to the
tourism sector and to the country in general.
13. Since the Kooddoo Island is going to have three distinct business entities, namely
Kooddoo Fisheries Maldives Ltd, Kooddoo Airport, and the Kooddoo City Hotel, the
EIA report includes, an officially approved boundary demarcations in Annex 3. |
