MP for Villimale Constituency Ahmed Usham has submitted an emergency motion to the Parliament calling on authorities to assess the damage caused by the platform that ran aground on Villimale reef last week.
The platform is used to build the Thila Male' bridge and ran aground on the Villimale reef on the 16th of this month and attempts to refloat the huge infrastructure have been unsuccessful so far. The platform has been repeatedly striking the reef and environmental protection groups have voiced concern over the inaction to remove the platform.
The Parliament had accepted the emergency motion by MP Usham with 16 out of 19 MPs favoring the motion. While one MP had voted against accepting the motion, two MPs didn't vote either way.
Speaking at the Parliament today, MP Usham said that the Thila Male' bridge project would bolster the Maldivian economy and benefit Villimale especially and that he supports the project.
MP Usham said that such projects should be carried out with consideration to the environment and that the environment had been disregarded during the Thila Male' project so far.
He said that the incident had occurred on a day with clear weather and that the government has been unable to say why the incident had occurred in the first place.
MP Usham further said that the contractor Afcons has also been able to justify the incident and that the contractor has not done enough to refloat the platform. He added that they only started the refloating work two days after the incident.
The MP also accused local authorities of not doing enough to minimize the damage caused by the platform and that each day that passes without the removal of the platform would further inflict damage on the Villimale reef.
He called on local authorities to assess the damage caused by the incident and take appropriate action.
