How can Impacts of the Tourism Industry still be Minimised?

Rubbish is the major problem in the Maldives and there are a number of ways that the government could try to minimize this. Firstly recycling should be introduced because of the huge piles of plastic bottles discarded by tourists. However it may be uneconomical to develop a recycling plant in the Maldives so one way would be to crush the plastic bottles into big blocks for ease of transport and then ship them to another country. This would reduce the waste levels and also be beneficial to the environment as less plastic bottles have to be produced.

To be more sustainable more resorts should follow in the footsteps of the Soneva Gili resort and collect rain water and build a desalinisation plant to decrease the amount of water need to be shipped in, for example.

Another problem that could be solved is the solid rock jetties causing a disturbance in the natural sand and water currents and also increasing erosion. These could be mitigated by reducing the number and size of jetties built but also building them on piles and not solid rock so water and sand can still pass through and around the island.

The construction of resort facilities on the reef flats, lagoons and island should also be limited more to decrease the disruption on currents, marine ecology, vegetation and wave patterns.