You’re a small island nation in the Indian Ocean. You’re running out of land and sea levels are rising. What do you do? Simple. You build another island. Just find a large enough area of coral reef on an atoll a few feet below sea level, dump concrete blocks on top of it, add fill dirt and sand, plant a few coconut palms and you have a new island. Then add a harbor and start building apartment blocks.
Well, it’s not quite as simple as that, but that’s what they’ve been doing in The Maldives, the island chain southwest of India and Sri Lanka, best known for its private islands and luxury resorts. At last count, the archipelago consisted of 1,192 islands, most too tiny to appear on any but the largest-scale maps. About 200 are inhabited, with fishing villages strung around the edges of the atolls. The archipelago is spread across about 35,000 square miles of the Indian Ocean, an area as large as Portugal or Hungary or the US state of Indiana, making the Maldives one of the world’s most dispersed countries. Paradoxically, it is also one of the most densely populated because there’s a lot of sea and not much land. The population of more than half a million is squeezed into an area a little smaller than the city of Detroit or Philadelphia, albeit with much nicer weather. In any case, the 1,192 islands and 120 square miles of land are dodgy statistics, because more than 80 per cent of the land is less than one meter above sea level. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that, at current rates, the rise in sea level will make most islands uninhabitable by 2100.
What can the government and population do? Although various schemes have been floated—so to speak—to buy cheap land in Asia, Africa or even Australia and relocate everyone, the current policy is to build up the central atolls near the capital Malé, and encourage people to move there where it will be easier to provide jobs and government services, including health, education and good Wi-Fi.
Hulhumalé island—already looking pretty crowded
The poster island for the policy is called Hulhumalé (New Malé in the native language, Dhivehi). Malé atoll, the capital, with about 145,000 people living in an area of just 3.6 square miles, is completely built up. The only option is to expand to nearby islands or build new ones such as Hulhumalé. Reclamation began in 1997, and construction has continued in phases, with roads, apartment blocks, houses and commercial and industrial plots added. A causeway links Hulhumalé to the next atoll to the south, Hulhulé, the site of the international airport. Hulhumalé is branded as a “youth city” and a “smart city” with fiber optic networks and unspecified “green” architecture and energy sources. By 2016, the population had risen to 40,000, with an eventual target of 240,000. If Hulhumalé ends up with that many people, it may start feeling as crowded as the capital, because it has a land area of only 1.5 square miles.
“The Maldives: Island and Nation Building” is Chapter Twelve of Postcards from the Borderlands, to be published by Open Books in November. You can pre-order here. Here’s what readers who had a sneak preview are saying about it:
“David’s journey crisscrossing the borders of countries in Asia and southern Africa is enthralling. The conversational narrative is witty and easy to read, especially for the armchair traveler; yet, his third travel adventure book would serve as valuable text for students in high schools and universities.” -Katherine P. Manley, author of Don’t Tell’em You’re Cold
“David’s writing makes the reader part of the experience he’s describing. Each story, or postcards, includes just enough historical data to contextualize the situation; more important in my opinion are the discussions with the people who actually live there. The situations in which he finds himself are often Heller-esque: a ticket agent in Malawi asks for a next of kin with a local number, a booking agent needing a manager to approve a flight change, a four hour trip to Shanghai without a visa, and many others. These are all punctuated by sometimes earnest, sometimes funny, but always genuine dialogue between David and the people who control, manage, or just live on the borders.” - Andrew Carlson, Associate Professor of Communication at Metropolitan State University in St Paul, Minnesota
Chapter Preview-- The Maldives: Island and Nation Building
There are lots of islands in The Maldives, but not enough land for the population. That’s why, even as the country’s existence is threatened by rising sea levels, it is building more islands on coral atolls. For centuries a stopping off point for merchant ships, the scattered island chain traded Buddhism for Islam in the 16th century. The tourism industry took off in the 1970s and is now the largest sector of the economy. At the airport island, tourists are whisked off by boat or seaplane to luxury resorts. They do not see the other Maldives—the crowded capital, Malé, its harbor and fish market, the new residential island of Hulhumalé, branded as a “youth city” with seafront condos, or the national landfill, an island literally built on trash.
