The Maldives - A Nation in Peril
How it all Began
"The impact of an environmental disaster was made appallingly real for me one day in April 1987. Unusually high waves struck Male' and other islands in the Mal "Yes with a ferocity that inflicted enormous damage throughout the country. Male' suffered the worst of the ordeal.
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While I was inspecting the damage, a large wave reared up suddenly and buffeted the vehicle I was in. It dragged me and my colleagues towards the open sea. It was a moment of fear, not for my own safety, but for the safety of the people of the Maldives, and for the future of our country.
That angry wave, dashing the shores of Male' and flooding the streets as a forceful example of what the Maldives could suffer from environment in turmoil.
I had been looking into the reasons for the dramatic change in the normally predictable nature of our seas. It was the beginning of an extensive national and international campaign to highlight the vulnerability of the Maldives, and other small island states, to the effects of climate change and sea-level rise.
A few months after those unprecedented high seas damaged Male', I spoke on the issue of environmental vulnerability of the Maldives at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Vancouver. I envisaged at the time a possible future calamity some 40 to 100 years from then. The scenario was based on scientific predictions that the anticipated rise in sea-levels, of about 50 centimetres (or about 1 inches), would take that amount of time to be a threat t low-lying countries like the Maldives.
Today, not only is the danger more than a decade closer than it as then, there are also indications that sea-level rise is happening even faster than expected. This means that we are no longer looking at the distant future, but at events that could happen within the lifetime of our children.
In these speeches collected here I have tried to alert the world to the possibility of a disaster that could affect every country, not only low-lying ones. I have done so, not just to save the Maldives, but to seek solutions. These speeches are an appeal to all nations to curb the harm they are causing to the natural balance of the environment.
As resident of an independent country, I am privileged to have access to international forums. As these speeches show, I have tried to use that privilege for the benefit of all. Alas, even the decisions taken by bodies charged with saving the environment fall short of being fully effective. What can each of us do, as individuals, to save our world? I is the whole world that is in peril, not just the beautiful islands of the Maldives. People in other countries can urge their governments to play their part, while making their own efforts to protect the environment from willful destruction. At home, we must try too.
Every effort, however small, to live in harmony with nature,' stead of polluting it, will help ensure that the time when the oceans rise up and wash away the land, may never happen."
31 October 1998


