More than 500,000 tonnes of waste are generated annually in the Maldives, with efforts under way to strengthen the country's waste management system, the Ministry of Climate Change, Environment and Energy has revealed.
The Ministry provided an update on ongoing waste management initiatives during a press conference held on Tuesday.
Speaking at the briefing, Director General of Waste Management and Pollution Ahmed Muruthala said managing waste in the Maldives remains particularly challenging due to the country's geography as an island nation. He said transporting waste by land and sea accounts for a significant proportion of waste management costs, while effective measures to reduce the volume of waste generated have yet to be fully realised.
The Maldives now generates more than 517,000 tonnes of waste each year, according to Muruthala.
"Due to the geography of the Maldives, we have to rely on land and marine transport, which is one of the biggest challenges we face. Looking at the rate at which waste is increasing in the Maldives, more than 500,000 tonnes of waste is generated," he said.
Muruthala also outlined waste generation across different sectors, noting that the volume of waste produced by the tourism industry continues to increase.
He said a new legal framework has been developed to strengthen waste management in the Maldives. Under the legislation, four new regulations will be introduced: the General Waste Management Regulation, the Waste Management Service Provision Regulation, the Single-Use Plastics Reduction Regulation, and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulation.
Muruthala said the legislation clearly defines the responsibilities of all institutions involved in waste management, including local councils, the Ministry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Utility Regulatory Authority (URA) and other relevant stakeholders.
"It is worth noting that this law very clearly defines the responsibilities of various parties. Previously, this was unclear, but with the enactment of this law, the responsibilities of the councils, the Ministry, EPA and URA, as well as those of other parties, are very clearly specified in the legislation," he said.
Muruthala also pointed to a reduction in the use of plastic supari packets as an example of progress in waste reduction, noting that the packets, once commonly seen discarded on streets across the country, are now rarely visible.