Southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean lies the Maldives, a country spread over some 1,200 small, sandy islands, only 196 of which are inhabited.
One third of the country’s 350,000 inhabitants live in the capital of Male. The city is getting congested and there is not enough space to house the families coming to the island looking for work, healthcare, etc.
For that purpose, Van Oord was requested to carry out reclamation work in the Maldives and enlarge a number of islands, protecting them with rock revetments and making development possible.
Van Oord took an active role in protecting the environment during execution. The goal was to minimize the short- and long-term impact of this project on the marine environment, including by relocating significant numbers of coral species, shifting them away from the reclamation areas.
With a project site over 600 kilometers long and remote locations to be reclaimed, proper planning and preparation were essential. The company had to bring everything required to execute the work.
Basic facilities such as temporary jetties needed to be built, and various equipment and materials were mobilized over long distances. That included not only the materials needed for the reclamation activities, but also those for the rock revetment that was being installed. The required rock was imported from outside the Maldives.
All this and more can be found in Van Oord’s latest video named “ Working with care: Van Oord in the Maldives “.