Clause in regulation which allows resorts to dispose waste into ocean repealed

The clause in the ‘Regulation on the Protection and Conservation of the Environment in the Tourism Industry’ which allows resorts to dispose waste into the ocean under special circumstances has been repealed.

Formulated in 2016 – Section 5.3.3 of the Regulation on the Protection and Conservation of the Environment in the Tourism Industry, states that tourist resorts, picnic islands and marinas operating in the Maldives may dispose only of food waste and biodegradable waste into the ocean in the absence of a designated area for waste disposal in the region. It further details that any such waste disposed shall be disposed to the sea outside of the atoll, taking into account the wind and ocean currents so that the disposed waste does not land on shores of islands.

This section has been omitted from the Regulation, after which it was gazetted yesterday.

The section has been repealed after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has commenced a probe into a case of illegal waste disposal into the ocean by a tourist resort last month.

A third-party divemaster who was working at the resort had fished the waste out of the water and dumped it at the resort’s reception – subsequent to which he was fired.