Article

This is an original article as printed in the Guardian Weekly which is suitable for advanced comprehension classes written by Randeep Ramesh.

It may be known as a tropical paradise, an archipelago of 1,200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean. But the traditional image of the Maldives hides a dirty secret: the world's biggest rubbish island.

A short boat ride from the Maldive capital Malé, Thilafushi began life as a reclamation project in 1992. The artificial island was built to solve Malé's refuse problem. But today, with more than 10,000 tourists a week in the Maldives adding their waste, the rubbish island now covers 50 hectares.

So much is being deposited that the island is growing at one square metre a day. It has become home to 150 Bangladeshi migrants who sift through the mound of refuse.

Environmentalists say that more than 330 tons of rubbish is brought to Thilafushi a day. The rubbish is sifted by hand. Some of the waste is incinerated but most is buried in landfill sites. There is, say environmental campaigners, also an alarming rise in batteries and electronic waste being dumped in Thilafushi's lagoon.

"We are seeing used batteries, asbestos, lead and other potentially hazardous waste being put into the water. These wastes are a source of toxic heavy metals and it is an increasingly serious ecological and health problem in the Maldives," says Ali Rilwan, an environmentalist in Malé.

Despite the growing crisis, Thilafushi remains largely hidden from view. Nobody goes there apart from workers.

Meanwhile, tourism has made the Maldives the richest country in South Asia in terms of GDP per head - which is about $4,500 - though the wealth is thinly spread.

However, almost everything has to be imported. Most tourists can only be catered for by bringing in thousands of tonnes of meat, vegetable and diesel oil every year.

All this produces what many say is an unsustainable amount of waste. Every tourist produces 3.5kg of rubbish and requires 500 litres of water a day.

The lack of space means the Maldives is now "exporting junk" to India. "Before, ships that brought our vegetables from south India used to return empty, but now we are sending them crushed cans, metals, cardboard. They then sort them out and get cash for them," says Rilwan.

Glossary

archipelago

(noun) a group of islands

to sift through

(phrasal verb) to look through a number of things and separate them into groups

landfill site

(noun) an area of land where large amounts of waste are buried

alarming

(adjective) very worrying

a source of

(noun) a thing or person that causes something, especially a problem

Questions

The questions below are divided into three groups - before, during and after reading the above article.

Before reading

The article is about the Maldives. Work with a partner and discuss the questions below.

1. Where are the Maldive islands? Which countries are they near?
2. What type of islands are they? What do they look like?
3. What are the islands popular for today? Why?

Look at the headline, photo and caption of the article.

1. What is the island of Thilafushi used as?
2. Who do you think produces most of the 330 tonnes of rubbish?
3. What is the double meaning of the word 'castaway?

Vocabulary from this article. Look at the list of vocabulary from the article. Check unknown words in a dictionary. Find two words from the list for each category below.

1. Nouns with a similar meaning to rubbish.
2. Verbs that describe what you can do with rubbish.
3. Adjectives to describe dangerous rubbish.
4. Specific items of rubbish.
5. People concerned about the problem of rubbish.

While reading

Read the first seven paragraphs of the article. Put "yes" or "no" next to the following statements. Underline where you find the information in the text. The island of Thilafushi ...

1. is near the capital of the Maldives.
2. is a natural coral island.
3. was built to help India's rubbish crisis.
4. is getting one square metre bigger every day.
5. has no population.
6. has dangerous chemicals in its lagoon.
7. is easy to see and visit.

Read the rest of the article from paragraph eight onwards. Answer these questions.

1. How does the Maldives compare to other countries in South Asia?
2. How is the wealth distributed in the country? What does this mean?
3. What does the Maldives now import and export.
4. How much rubbish does a tourist produce every day?
5. What did the ships from India do in the past? What do they do now?

After reading

Active or passive. Complete the summary given below with the correct form of the active or passive of the verb in brackets.

Collocations. Look at this adverb/adjective collocation from the article: ... it is an increasingly serious ecological and health problem (para 6)

Find two more adverb/adjective collocations in the text to match these meanings: possibly dangerous ___, mostly out of sight ___.

Put the following adverb/adjective collocations into the sentences which follow.

1. The island is now ___ to environmental disaster because of the toxic waste.
2. The hotels are quiet at this time of year with a ___ number of visitors.
3. The president was ___ about the bad publicity in all the newspapers.
4. Despite global problems, tourists still visit the Maldives and the economy is ___.
5. The workers became ___ after handling toxic waste.
6. A sudden fall in the number of tourists could be ___ for this small country.
7. Some local people didn't believe the stories and thought they were ___.

Choose four of the collocations and write your own sentences.

Activity - Discussion

Tourism and the environment

1. Decide if you agree or disagree with the statements below -
   1. Tourists want to visit beautiful destinations but they often ruin these places.
   2. Mass tourism is one of the biggest threats to the future of the environment.
   3. Tourism is a source of income for poorer countries and it should be encouraged.
   4. Governments should help people to enjoy the sights of their own country.
   5. Tourism is important because it promotes understanding between different cultures.
2. Discuss your ideas in small groups.
3. Devise a holiday with low environmental impact for your small group. Present and explain your holiday to the rest of the class.