Marine engineers create islands at Maldives

A plan to create 194 hectares of land at the Maldives will be carried out by marine civil engineering firm Van Oord, who will also install 11 kilometres of coastal protection as part of the contract.

The land reclamation is part of the Addu Development Project, which aims to transform the city of Addu into a ‘fully functional, thriving economic hub and an attractive tourist destination’. Addu is the islands’ southernmost atoll.

Van Oord will reclaim land for the government’s Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure along the coasts of the islands Hithadhoo and Maradhoo/Maradhoo-Feydhoo, as well as create three islands in the city’s lagoon.

Using its HAM318 trailing suction hopper dredger (pictured), Van Oord will source sand from two areas in the lagoon, starting immediately.

More than 80% of the islands of the Maldives are less than a metre above sea level, which means it has the lowest terrain of any country in the world, according to NASA.

The land reclamation is being done as part of a target to decentralise the islands away from the capital of Malé, which is why in 1997 building began to increase the island of Hulhumalé, to the north east of Malé.

It was expanded in size by four square kilometres by using sand pumped from the seafloor onto a submerged coral platform, and it is now two metres above sea level.

Now the fourth largest island in the archipelago, Hulhumalé is already home to 50,000 people, with 200,000 more expected to move there if sea level rises make Malé uninhabitable.