Environmental Protection Agency EPA says Villimale reef has sustained severe damage because of the self-elevating platform that ran aground on it last month.
The Agency had begun a damage assessment survey earlier this week to determine the damage to the reef where the platform from AFCONS, the Indian contractor for the Thila male' bridge, ran aground on the 16th of last month.
While it took the contractor 12 days to remove the megastructure, it had repeatedly struck the reef floor and the vibrations from the impact were felt on the island.
EPA had last night shared pictures taken during the reef assessment survey and it showed that the incident had caused huge holes in the reef floor. The pictures also showed one of EPA's divers standing inside one of the holes and the hole measured his height in depth.
Speaking to 'The Press' EPA said that the survey showed that the holes were formed because of the legs of the platform that had embedded themselves on the reef floor and that the reef's structure had sustained damage.
EPA further said that the repeated bashing of the platform on the reef had damaged the reef and that the corals had been broken off due to the impact.
The Agency said that the Environment Impact Assessment EIA for the project had indicated that some areas of the reef would be damaged and that these areas were listed in the EIA.
However, EPA said that the platform had damaged an area of the Villimale reef not mentioned in the project EIA.
EPA said that action would be taken to compensate for the damage once the assessment is complete and that it would take a week to finish the assessment report.
