Environment - ތިމާވެށި
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Item Environmental impact assessment : for the construction of a harbour in Vashafaru island, Haa Alif Atoll, Maldives(2013-01-01) Abdul, AleemThis report discusses the findings of a social and environmental impact study undertaken by Water Solutions Pvt. Ltd. upon request from Ministry of Housing. The project involves construction of a harbour in the island of Vasahafaru in, Haa Alif Atoll. Until now, the island has not been blessed with a harbour and is one of the most crucial issues faced by the island community. This project is initiated by the government of Maldives as part of its national programme to provide safe harbours to each and every inhabited island in Maldives. Presently, the lack of a harbour is not only the biggest obstacles faced by the islanders, but the reason why the economic growth of the island is not expanding and diversified. Lack of a harbour has many development obstacles for islands and similarly, Vashafaru is also faced with similar dilemma. At present, the islanders use a small jetty on the western side where the geographical formation of the reef and the lagoon does not favour ideal conditions during most part of the year. In rough weather, the western side gets very rough resulting in difficulties utilizing this side for mooring and loading and unloading of people and goods become almost impossible. The proposed project is therefore geared towards developing a third generation harbour on the southern side of the island with an entrance channel and breakwaters to protect the harbour basin. This harbour is expected to ease many of the challenges faced by the islanders, especially for the vessel owners, as safe mooring will be guaranteed. A detail environmental and social assessment was undertaken for this project and the findings are reported in this EIA. This EIA has been prepared to assess the social and environmental impacts of this proposed rehabilitation project. As this is a completely new development, significant negative impacts on the marine environment will be felt through permanent habited modification and direct destruction of the marine environment. Similarly, the coral reef will also be directly and indirectly impacted from this project. At the same time, the socio-economic impacts of the project will be significantly felt on a very larger group, and not necessarily the islanders only. In such projects, environmental damage cannot be avoided and hence the goal should be to undertake the works in the most least damaging manner. As a large area of the marine environment will be affected, careful implementation of mitigation measures and adopting methods which minimizes damage will be key for this project. Most of these measures are best practice guidelines and protocols that does not require a lot of money to implement. In view of the assessment, the environmental damages to marine resources have been considered significant due to the nature of the project. The impacts are likely to be felt on an estimated 8% of the reef, mostly along the southern side of the reef system. These environmental impacts were assessed for both construction and operation phase of the project and the majority of the negative impacts will be felt during the construction stage. However significant these negative impacts are, they cannot be compared with the socioeconomic benefits gained by developing the harbour. As a result, a comprehensive monitoring component has been suggested which takes in to consideration, the most important elements that require regular monitoring such as the changes to the sediment movement around the island. This monitoring component will be adhered and will allow the assessment of long term changes resulting from the project. One of the important monitoring aspects will be the socioeconomic impacts. Stakeholder consultations were held with various groups, including the island council and the client in order to incorporate the socio-economic components in the project. Stakeholders, most importantly the island community represented by the Island council was the most significant as they have the maximum knowledge and experience from the daily difficulties faced due to lack of a harbour. Apart from this, the council receives complains from boat owners and others on a daily basis with regard to this. The development of the harbour in Vashafaru will have significant environmental impacts to the island, most of which will be felt on the coastal and the marine environment. The project takes place in an environment that has been not been modified or damaged significantly. Therefore, environmental impacts are going to be major. However, the social impacts of this project will be significant and will benefit the community as well as other the region. Therefore, despite the negative environmental impacts, it is justifiable to undertake this projectItem Environmental impact assessment : for the Proposed resort development in Dhoores island, Dhaalu Atoll, Maldives(2013-08-01) Abdul, AleemThis report discusses the findings of an environmental impact study undertaken by Water Solutions Pvt Ltd for the development of Dhoores Island in Dhaalu atoll in to a resort. This project is proposed by Vermillion Pvt Ltd of Maldives to develop Dhoores as a resort. The resort will be completed and under operation in 2014 with a total bed capacity of 90. Dhoores is located inside Dhaalu atoll, slightly on the western side on its own reef system. The island will be developed to a resort with 45 rooms. The development of Dhoores will include only land structures and no over water structures are proposed. All the public facilities including restaurant, kitchen, staff area, fuel storage, waste management area etc. are located inside the island. All of the guest villas will be developed on land, mostly on the periphery of the island to take advantage of the beach environment.The design of Dhoores concentrates the guest villas on the periphery of island and public facilities are concentrated on the western side. The staff and back of house areas will be developed in the centre of the island. Two jetties are proposed to be constructed in Dhoores, located on the northern side of the island. Access to this jetty (labelled jetty 1 located on the north-west) is aligned with an existing entrance channel. However, this access channel is narrow and hence it is proposed to widen and deepen this entrance channel so that large Dhoni‟s can access the jetty head during construction period as well as during the operational period. It is proposed to construct this jetty first which will also be used as a temporary jetty. The dredged material from the channel will be deposited on thewestern side of the jetty as a means of protecting the leeward side of the channel. The deposited material will protected using jumbo bags which will ensure that the sand remains in one mass. Although the approved site plan indicates an L-shaped jetty head, the construction of the jetty will not consider the L-shaped jetty head for jetty 1. The second jetty (jetty 2) will be constructed on the east of jetty 1 and will require creation of an access channel and a mooring basin towards the jetty head (refer to the project description section for details of the breakwater and dredging details). The jetty head will be L-shaped with rock boulders placed underneath to create a safe mooring space. The breakwaters underneath the jetty head will prevent wave action inside the mooring basin, creating a protective area for boats to moore at all times. It is proposed to develop this jetty at a later stage of construction. The dredged material from the channel and the mooring basin will be used as core material for the breakwater and excess will be used as backfilling some island infrastructure at the back of house. During the construction stage, construction waste will be managed by periodically transporting them to Thilafushi. During the operation stage, management of the resort‟s waste will be undertaken through the waste management centre that will address all the types of waste generated in the island. Wastes that can be managed on the island, such as green waste and food wastes will be managed on the island using a combination of incinerators, composting and deep water disposal. This EIA report has identified impacts during construction and operational stage. During the construction stage, impacts will be felt on the terrestrial, coastal and the marine environment. 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. Coastal impacts will also be felt as a result of alteration brought about. Terrestrial impacts will be felt through land clearing and cutting of trees. The most significant impacts during the operational stage will be felt as a result of the on-going waste generation and how well it is managed during the operational stage. Baseline data has, therefore, been collected in order to monitor the changes to the terrestrial, coastal and marine environment which will be identified in periodical monitoring reports. Alternatives to the project have also been considered in detail and several alternatives to the proposed project were considered. The advantages and disadvantages of these alternatives have been discussed and they include environmental as well as financial reasons. Therefore, several design consideratioalthough initially were considered, has been rejected due to these reasons. Towards, the end of the report, a monitoring programme has been suggested which covers components of terrestrial, coastal and the marine environment. These include coral cover and marine water quality among many other parameters. The opening of the resort will increase the bed capacity of Dhaalu Atoll and the Maldives and hence increase job opportunities in the tourism sector. This will have a profound impact on the geographical distribution of jobs and open up opportunities for people of Dhaalu atoll to engage in a job close to their island