Mr. Shamau Shareef: Be the Change You Wish to See in This World
Mr.
Shamau Shareef, Deputy Mayor, Male City Council, Maldives
Overpopulation, climate change, mass
migration… the situation of my city has never been more complicated.
From the sky, it looks like an entire
city is adrift in the Indian Ocean. A forest of tower-blocks rise above the
emerald-colored water while just a handful of trees poke through the canopy of
concrete.
For those living in Malé City, the
overcrowded capital of the Maldives, there is no choice but to build upwards.
Caged by the sea, we have no more land
to spread onto, yet the city’s population has soared by nearly 52% since 2006.
The last census in 2014 counted 158,000 people crammed into the city’s 2.2 sq
miles (5.7 sq km) of space, and officials say the figure has since grown
further.
When people think of the Maldives, it is
usually of a beautiful paradise with crystal clear lagoons and white sand
beaches. Malé is very different. We have very limited space and life is tough.
Space is such a premium in Malé that
pavements are often less than three feet wide, forcing pedestrians to walk in
single file, while many streets have no sidewalk at all.
Malé City, is emblematic of modern-day
land issues: A small, increasingly urbanising space with a skyrocketing
population.
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