Hulhumeedhoo powerhouse has started works to provide electricity to Hulhudhoo farm fields today. This is in conjunction with the minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Dr. Ibrahim Didi’s promise during the opening ceremony of newly developed road that leads to farm fields in February 2009. Dr. Didi promised to Hulhumeedhoo people that he would enhance means and ways to develop agriculture in Hulhudhoo and Meedhoo and that he would prioritize providing electricity.
Hulhudhoo Today has learnt that the current power network expansion project carried out by Hulhumeedhoo powerhouse is to enable farmers to easily access to electricity needs at a reasonable cost. Under this project three distribution boxes near farm fields of each island would be setup and it depends of farmers to get connections from these boxes.
Some farmers are still dissatisfied. According to them, they would have to spent further Mrf10,000 to get power connection to their relevant farm fields. However ministry has recently announced that they would soon start providing soft loans, with 3% interest rates, to farmers. This is likely to ease the tension of the farmers experiencing short term financial difficulties in expanding their business.
During February ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture has conducted a ten day workshop in Hulhumeedhoo to improve the knowledge of farmers. The workshop was a success as it had helped many farmers enrich their understanding towards various diseases to crops.
Power network expansion project to Meedhoo farms will kick off upon completion of the development of preceding roads. Unlike Hulhudhoo, Meedhoo is rich in farming and the scope for expansion of agriculture is higher.
9:42 PM |
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Fuel Supplies Maldives have signed contract with southern province office yesterday to set up a fuel storage facility in Hulhumeedhoo. The contract was signed by the Deputy Managing Director of FSM Ibrahim Ziyath and Addu Atoll Councilor, Mr. Abdull Sadiq.
Storage facility would be set up adjacent to Public Works unit of Hulhumeedhoo and it is the most desirable place for setting up the facility. FSM requires 4900f2 of land for this facility. High profile citizens from Hulhumeedhoo along with their respective Island Chiefs accompanied the delegation of FSM to observe the site.
According to FSM the main aim of the storage facility is to make fuel available to Hulhumeedhoo community as they are distributed elsewhere in Addu. FSM have set up similar storage tanks in Hithadhoo and local distributors buy in abundance to resell to the public. FSM also indicated that the storage facility is temporary and will be replaced with a new facility close to the proposed jetty which would be common to Hulhudhoo and Meedhoo.
Setting up a fuel storage facility in Hulhumeedhoo would ease the shortage of fuel supplies in Hulhumeedhoo whereas community would enjoy reduced expenditure on fuel.
12:04 PM |
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Tourism and hotel management is synonymous with Addu people since its birth in 1972. Tens of thousands of Addu people work at different hierarchical levels of tourism industry in the country. As the geography of the atoll and political stand of former administration hindered growth of tourism in Addu, children’s of Addu, at their very young age, sailed toward jobs in the hotel and tourism industry across the nation. However tourism has started to take effect in a larger scale in 2006 when Maldives Tourism Development Corporation made $44million investment to develop Herathera Island Resort, which latter failed to harbor the need of Addu community at large. Today one would wonder why on earth the people so dedicated to tourism is incapable of helping $100million worth investment by Shangri-La at Viligili?
Shangri-La Maldives Resort & Spa at Viligili, which is due to open in July 10, 2009, is seeking 30,000 m3 of white sand to develop its beach. According to Shangri-La, they would be able to open the hotel for business in July only if they get the required amount of white sand before monsoon. Dr. Simad Saeed, while meeting with the members of Hulhudhoo Island Development Committee and vessel owners last night, stated that Shangri-La might have to postpone the opening of the hotel until January next year if the problem of making beach is not resolved.
The quality and the quantity of white sand required by Shangri-La are available within Addu’s vast shallow lagoon west of Meedhoo “the Kedevaa Hera”. Kedevaa Hera is the area decreed by the members of Atoll Development Committee for extracting sand for civilian purposes and during the development phase of Herathera huge amount of sands were sold to Herathera by a group of Meedhoo people. Hulhudhoo Today has learnt on various occasions that two different parties had failed their attempt to extract sand from Kedevaa Hera and sell them to Shangri-La for unidentifiable reasons. Certainly the crux of the problem here is the huge amount of money involved in supply of white sand to Viligili and every party wants to grab most share of it. Ultimately none of the parties are able to undertake the project alone due to the pressure from other parties and islands.
Indeed, opening of Shangri-La Maldives Resort & Spa at Viligili is a long lasting dream of Addu people. Members of Hulhudhoo Island Development Committee and vessel owners collectively agreed that they are ready to accept extracting sand from Hulhudhoo lagoon. “Extracting sand might cause environmental degradations in the long run, but if Shangri-La guarantees environmental safety they could dug out sand from Hulhudhoo” stated committee. Committee further stated that Shangri-La could also dig the channel leading to deep sea as it has become shallow. “The channel needs to be dug 1.5 meters out to allow easy passage of the huge fishing vessels and cargo boats and I think Shangri-La would get huge amount of sand from there itself, apart from the proposed area for harbor”, suggested a member.
Dr. Simad Saeed, acknowledging the voice of committee and vessel owners being unified decision of Hulhudhoo community, stated that he would deliver this positive and uniform feedback to Shangri-La and that he would arrange a meeting with Shangri-La to further discuss the matter. He also assured to bring it to the attention of Shangri-La that none of the Hulhudhoo personals are taken for jobs at Viligili.
4:01 PM |
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