NEW YORK: Rising sea levels and coastal erosion - both wrought by climate change - threaten the viability of Maldives, but overcrowding and other impacts are already felt by the island nation's 300,000 people, a United Nations independent expert said today.
After an eight-day visit to country, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing Raquel Rolnik said: "Maldives and its Atolls, because of their unique geological and topographic aspects and their fragile and delicate environmental system, are already experiencing the impacts of climate change."
This jeopardizes the survival of the nation, which could be inundated by water, but more immediately, it jeopardizes the right to housing due to the scarcity of land.
Rolnik stressed the responsibility of the international community to urgently support adaptation strategies, noting that "the post-2004 Indian Ocean tsunami reconstruction process in Maldives can be a source of precious lessons."
Over the past four years, donors and agencies have mobilized over $400 million in aid, but the Rapporteur voiced concern over the allocation of the resources and their management by Maldivian authorities.
