Environmental impact assessment : for the proposed new water villa and spa construction in Thulhaagiri resort, North Male' Atoll, Maldives

Abstract

This report discusses the findings of an environmental impact study undertaken by Water Solutions Pvt. Ltd. for the construction of 17 new water villas and an over water spa in Thulhaagiri resort. • This project is proposed by Thulhagiri resort, north Male’ atoll. The new construction will take place without shutting down the operations and is expected to be 6 months. • Thulhaagiri is located inside north Male’ atoll approximately 15 km north of Male’. The island is surrounded by the many reefs around the island in north‐male’ atoll. • The resort infrastructure is quite old and also due to the size of the island, there are only limited facilities available. Rooms are cluttered along the beach providing little privacy for guest and the severe erosion of the east and southern beaches are serious environmental issues faced. As a result, sea wall and groynes have been constructed at along the coastline at different sections. • The only possibility of increasing the room capacity is through expansion in the lagoon. There are already 17 water villas constructed on the southern lagoon and the additional 17 rooms will be constructed on the southern side, west of the existing rooms. • Additional rooms and a spa is important to increase the room capacity and compete with other resorts and meet the market demands currently prevailing in the tourism industry. The idea is to renovate the island by constructing new facilities in the resort. Hence, the project involves construction of a spa and water villas. • This EIA report has identified that the major impacts of the project will be felt on the marine environment since new water villa and spa construction will take place in the lagoon. Impacts on the marine environment will be felt through sedimentation and siltation caused by the construction activities on the lagoon and the associated indirect impacts on the coral reef, during this period. Baseline data has, therefore, been collected in order to monitor the changes to the marine environment which will be identified in periodical monitoring reports. The most significant impact will be felt on the lagoon bottom, rather than the coral reef. • Alternatives to the project have also been considered in detail and several alternatives to the proposed project were considered, including alternative methods of water villa construction. Once alternative that has been suggested is to construct the water villas on large but minimal number of columns. Other alternatives considered include alternative locations and construction strategy. Due to various reasons, these alternatives have not been considered. The advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives have been discussed and they include environmental as well as financial reasons. Therefore, several design considerations, although initially were considered, has been rejected due to these reasons.• Towards, the end of the report, a monitoring programme has been suggested which mainly covers the marine environment. These include coral cover and marine water quality among many other parameters. As the impacts are felt on the marine environment, it is important to undertake this monitoring.