300,000 may not be a big number for countries like India, Pakistan, or China, but it is big for a country like Maldives. After the Tsunami of 2004, when the government of Maldives is struggling to build up the country’s economy and infrastructure; a new problem is looming up.
On July 9, 2006, with the birth of 22 children, the population of Maldives reached 0.3 million but the long term population growth has declined to 1.7% per year. The main problem is that majority of the people (100,000) lives in the capital Male. This is creating serious pressure and causing pollution in the city. On the other hand, 65% of the population lives in other islands. Due to the dispersed nature of these islands, it is problematic to conduct development activities. In addition, there are 45,000 expatriates from India, Bangladesh, and Srilanka who are working in the tourism sector.
Rising population is a major problem in almost all the countries of South Asia. The land does not increase the way population does. Huge population creates pressure on country’s resources. The worst part is that, this problem can not be solved over night. It takes time to reduce the growth of population. I know that at this moment the Maldives government has more important matters to deal with; however, if proper measures are not taken then I am afraid that in near future Maldives will be facing various problems created by huge population.
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