The Maldives are a string of coral islands in the Indian
Ocean that, some scientists have predicted, will disappear beneath the big blue sea sometime in this century. A
few of the islands have already been submerged…a creating peculiar life-style problems for the people who once
inhabited them. But despite this, they remain one of the world’s most amazing diving destinations, with kick ass
beaches to boot. But in order to save some Maldivians,
an
island has been built, literally, out of coral and sand to provide homes for those whose homes have been lost.
No joke.
The new island is called Hulhumale, and is providing a sanctuary for about 1,500 people who now live in a first
cluster of houses built on the 465-acre island. The Maldivian government hopes around 15 percent of the country’s
300,000 mostly Sunni Muslim inhabitants will opt to migrate over the next 15 years, making Hulhumale a quite crowded
place…but of course crowded is better than no place at all.