The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation has reported that the government has launched efforts for legal recourse and claiming damages to the state related to reef damages caused by vessels.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – the primary authority in environmental preservation in the Maldives – levies a fine of MVR 5,900 per five cubic meters, and a fine of MVR 12,600 if it exceeds this.
While the authority has been dealing with 51 of such cases, the Maldives government is owed MVR 5 billion in damages by multiple different entities. Many of whom have refused citing various excuses. The more prevalent cause being, a lack of a stronger enforcement measure.
Senior officials from EPA, the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) were summoned to the Parliament’s Environment and Climate Change Committee to discuss the establishment of a legal framework to hold parties accountable for reef damage and to claim compensation from culpable parties.
EPA Director General, Ibrahim Naeem, while speaking at Wednesday’s committee meeting, highlighted vessels and its owners did not face any legal obstacles in operating within the Maldives even after causing reef damages. He stressed that by imposing strict penalties on such offenders was the most ideal way of curtailing such reef damages.