Nala Nala Raajje (Beautiful Maldives): Why Waste?

My assignment here in the Maldives is to work with the Live and Learn team on a World Bank funded project to develop a National Waste Awareness Media Campaign, part of a larger National Waste Management project to improve awareness of increasing waste, poor waste management practices, stakeholder responsibility and the new government 'polluter pays' policy. The campaign involves the development of TV and Radio segments and ads, and Newspaper articles and ads. As a tourist you would not see the waste management problems in the Maldives as you would be segregated from the local muslim communities. You would experience an idyllic tropical island and the waste problem would be "out of sight - out of mind". However on the local inhabited islands its a different story.

Here at Mahibadhoo Island, as is the case for most of the inhabited islands, most of the waste is dumped on the beach and burnt and there is a huge problem with dumping of waste into the ocean around the islands. After the 2004 Tsunami there was a huge effort to clean up the debris on the affected islands by the International Red Cross societies. The United Nations Development Program funded the development of Waste Management Centres on some islands to store waste and recyclables. Most of the waste from Male' and the resorts and local islands is taken to Thilafushi or what is affectionately known as the "Rubish Island". Below is the Waste Transfer Station in Male'. Bangladeshi workers are used to pick the PET bottles from the waste as there is no household source separation of recyclables.

Here is the tip burning face on Thilafushi.

Here is an example of the "sea fill" of the burnt waste at Thilafushi, the waste is used to fill up the lagoon on the island. This "sea fill" is not like an engineered landfill. Leachate is not captured and treated, it simply is left to fill the coral reef bed which is porous, an impending environmental disaster.

PET is stockpiled on the island, I am told that some is recycled.

Piles of contaminated waste is also stockpiled, much of it leaking onto the ground.

Recently we ran a stakeholder consultation Branding Workshop to develop the campaign slogan and key messages. Tedry, the film maker we are working with came up with the name Nala Nala Raajje, its translation is something like Beautiful Maldives and is a popular choice of title for the campaign. Below I am explaining the design of the "Campaign Architecture"

Tedry from Eternal Pictures describes his creative storyboard

Brainstorming and designing creative slogans and images



Examples of the creative ideas for slogans and key messages are put on display under the projects key themes.

Everyone rated their favourite slogans

Flying to Soneva Fushi Resort

The Live and Learn team flew to Soneva Fushi Eco Resort via seaplane to meet with the management team as part of a Sustainable Islands Consultancy program. The plan is to provide environmental training to staff and surrounding islands.









Recycling bins on the island

A "rubbish bin" - very organic!


A composting toilet

View from the toilet - over the permaculture garden


Shredded Coconut Husk fibre used as mulch

Bannanas

Vegie Garden

Taking it easy

Male' Street Cleaners

This is how the streets are cleaned in Male' and this is a rubbish cart

Surfs up

This is a pic of the surf break near my place, a bit slopy today, I'm hoping to lend a board so I can catch a few waves while I am here. Notice the crabs on the breakwater pillars? These pillars surround the island of Male' and were built with assistance from the Japanese. They were just finished before the Tsunami and assited in keeping the water back.

Maldiving

It was the moment I had been waiting for, the opportunity to dive into the beautiful azure water and experience the tropical ocean life. I joined a group of dive enthusiasts on a trip with Ocean Dive Desk in Male. On the boat with Sudesh (Red Cross), Minako (working in Maldives assisting with Japanese weddings) and Yasutoshi (on holidays) who we later named James Bond.

My buddy was 'Mario' the dive master his real name is Nixam.

My first dive was to Manta Point near Paradise Island where we saw about 5 huge Manta Rays swimming majestically around us and then a school of about 20 devil rays came over head. I was testing out my new camera housing so didn't get a chance to photograph them. But just recently I was sent these pics of the mantas from my friend Yasutoshi in Japan alias James Bond.



The next dive was on a reef called Margiri Rock and was abundant with colourful fish, a morey eel and lionfish.




And this is how Yasutosh earned his name, James Bond!

Off to Mahibadhoo Island

Here is a beautiful traditional Dhoni boat at Mahibadhoo, one of the inhabited islands that I recently visited to celebrate a belated World Environment Day organised by the Ministry for Environment, Energy and Water. I spent 3 days on the island attending a community environmental workshop, judging a schools environmental poster and re use-art competition. Here are some of the winners.