Vice President Faisal Naseem has stated the administration would continue to provide full support to innovative environmental initiatives. He made the remarks while speaking at the launching ceremony of the First Policy Round Table on Marine Litter Prevention held at the auditorium of Maldives National University (MNU).
Speaking at the ceremony, Vice President Naseem highlighted numerous challenges the Maldives face in disposing of waste in a safe and sustainable manner. He acknowledged the task at hand is enormous and reiterated the administration’s commitment to this task, stating that it is fully prepared to face it head-on.
In his speech, Vice President Naseem noted the importance of healthy oceans and vibrant biodiversity in achieving a thriving economy in the Maldives. The vice president elaborated the efforts of the administration to adopt innovative solutions that would transition to a more ocean-friendly, community-led blue economy that prioritises sustainable use of the ocean bounties. He stated the administration had prohibited the importation of selected single-use plastics and had drafted a new waste regulatory bill that includes the implementation of expanded producer obligations.
Furthermore, the vice president highlighted how the administration is working on turning waste into a resource through a four-step process and shared the vision of developing a decentralised waste management system that can be integrated on a national scale. He said that initiatives like these offer hope and indicated that the country is on the right route and that he hoped to see tangible action as a result of these round table discussions.
The Prevention of Marine Litter in the Lakshadweep Sea (PROMISE) project, is a part of the SWITCH Asia programme which seeks to promote source-to-sea solutions in an effort to reduce marine littering in tourism clusters along the Lakshadweep shorelines which includes Maldives, Sri Lanka, and India. The series of policy roundtables aim to prototype policy solution mechanisms for pressing challenges in the prevention of marine litter. The PROMISE project is a four-year project funded by the European Union (EU) under the SWITCH Asia programme, and MNU has been designated as the lead agency of the project.