Sea Level Rise Seen Prompting Maldives Population Shift

The sea around Maldives has been rising by one millimetre for the last 10 years, a government study has revealed, prompting authorities to warn of "more severe natural disasters" in the future.

A report published by the Environment Research Centre (ERC) on Tuesday [22 May] noted the trend, and says that 90 per cent of the inhabited islands in the Maldives have reported coastal erosion as a result.

"Such changes in sea level will lead to more natural disasters and increase the impact of such disasters," warns Abdulla Algeen, deputy director of Met Office. "Due to increase in climate change, the intensity of storms we face each year is increasing. Sea level rise will worsen the impact," says Mr Algeen

The Met Office also says that the recent floods from sea swells were aggravated by climate change.

"The impact of the recent swells that caused floods in many islands was worsened by sea-level rise," says Mr Algeen. "Every year we face storms in southeast and northeast monsoon. Sea level rise will definitely increase the impact of these storm surges," he warns.

The report was prepared with data compiled and collected over 10 years from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and United States Geological Service (USGS) and authorities of the Reunion islands.

Population consolidation

Another report published by the Met Office on the atypical swells this month warns that "global warming and changes in sea level will increase such disasters and their severity".

The government is now calling for people to be moved to bigger islands to prevent the disasters having such a big impact on the population in the future.

"We need to resettle people living on vulnerable islands to bigger islands. Population consolidation on safer islands needs to happen as soon as possible," says Ahmed Abdulla, minister of environment, energy and water.

"The Planning Ministry needs to play a major role. We need to determine protected islands. If people can be moved then we can build sea walls and give more protection to them. At the moment we do not have the means to protect the 200 or so inhabited islands," warns the minister.

"There are many delays because many people refuse to move from their current islands and a lot of money is required to resettle people," he says. "The ministry is conducting more research on climate change and related issues. We will try to get funding for them through the UN system."

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.