{"id":1916,"date":"2021-08-21T17:21:39","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916"},"modified":"2021-08-21T17:21:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:21:39","slug":"epa-intervene-veligandu-island-resort-development-over-rasdhoo-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916","title":{"rendered":"EPA intervene Veligandu Island Resort development over Rasdhoo protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Saturday, 21st August<\/strong> &#8211; Environment Protection Agency (EPA) had stepped in to intervene the development of Veligandu Island Resort over environmental concerns and protests from neighboring Rasdhoo.<\/p>\n<p>As per the residents of Rasdhoo, the reclamation of Alif Alif atoll Mathiveri which lies close to the\u00a0 resident island, for the development of Veligandu Island Resort is conducted illegally. The resort island is developed by one of the major hotelier company&#8217;s in Maldives, Crown and Champa Resorts.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, due to mounting pressure over the environmental complains and the alleged illegality of the reclamation issue, EPA had stepped into order a halt on the development project.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, local reports also confirm the reclamation executed at Mathiveri lagoon is to increase the land area for the resort in order to develop housing for the staff and build a harbor.<\/p>\n<p>This has since been challenged by the Rasdhoo Island Council as well as tourism businesses operating at the resident island.<\/p>\n<p>Though the development proceeded with EPA&#8217;s stamp of approval, it has since put a halt on the project in order to investigate the complaints regarding damages to the house reef due to movement of sand and mud from the lagoon bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, 21st August &#8211; Environment Protection Agency (EPA) had stepped in to intervene the development of Veligandu Island Resort over environmental concerns and protests from neighboring Rasdhoo. As per the residents of Rasdhoo, the reclamation of Alif Alif atoll Mathiveri which lies close to the\u00a0 resident island, for the development of Veligandu Island Resort is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2429],"tags":[421,591,596,1356,1761,2135,2267],"class_list":{"0":"post-1916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tourism","8":"tag-crown-and-champa-resorts","9":"tag-environment-protection-agency-epa","10":"tag-epa","11":"tag-maldives-tourism","12":"tag-rasdhoo-island-council","13":"tag-tourist-resorts","14":"tag-veligandu-island-resort"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EPA intervene Veligandu Island Resort development over Rasdhoo protests - Maldives Business Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPA intervene Veligandu Island Resort development over Rasdhoo protests - Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Saturday, 21st August &#8211; Environment Protection Agency (EPA) had stepped in to intervene the development of Veligandu Island Resort over environmental concerns and protests from neighboring Rasdhoo. As per the residents of Rasdhoo, the reclamation of Alif Alif atoll Mathiveri which lies close to the\u00a0 resident island, for the development of Veligandu Island Resort is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maldives Business Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-21T12:21:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mohamed Reehaan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mvbiztimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mohamed Reehaan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mohamed Reehaan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/#\/schema\/person\/a0eedc1134716e7c8e4da095494670c2\"},\"headline\":\"EPA intervene Veligandu Island Resort development over Rasdhoo protests\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-21T12:21:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916\"},\"wordCount\":207,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"keywords\":[\"Crown and Champa Resorts\",\"Environment Protection Agency (EPA)\",\"EPA\",\"Maldives Tourism\",\"Rasdhoo Island Council\",\"tourist resorts\",\"Veligandu Island Resort\"],\"articleSection\":[\"TOURISM\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mbt.mv\/?p=1916\",\"name\":\"EPA intervene Veligandu Island Resort development over Rasdhoo protests - 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