Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6), Climate Action (SDG 13)
Investigating Effects of Land Reclamation by Dredging
Ibrahim Shareef* Maldives National University, Maldives
The Maldives is the lowest lying country in the world, at the forefront directly experiencing the changes due to the changing climate and rising sea levels. To accommodate for the demand for land due to increase in population and concerns over rising sea level the government of Maldives have opted for land reclamation by dredging sand. Tens of such projects are carried out all over the Maldives every year, where one such project can displace millions of cubic meters of sedimented sand. Although there are environmental surveys carried out for each of these projects, the short term and long-term effects of such activities are not very well understood. An investigation was carried out to study the effects of land reclamation and displacement of large amount of sedimented sand on mercury levels of bigeye scads in Maldives. Samples were collected from areas where land reclamation have been carried out and where no land reclamation have been carried out. The total mercury content (Wet weight) for the samples were determined by DMA-80 direct mercury analyzer, employing thermal decomposition, amalgamation, and atomic absorption spectrometry. The estimated mean mercury levels were found to be 0.047 mg/Kg (WW) and 0.026 mg/Kg (WW) for reclaimed areas and untouched areas, respectively. Land reclaimed areas were found to have bigeye scads with more mercury content. The difference in mercury content was found to be significant with 95% confidence interval. Although there was a significant increase in mercury levels identified for bigeye scads caught in land reclaimed areas, the results from the study are not enough to conclusively determine the cause. However, these results suggest the need to study the short term and long-term effects of land reclamation, and the need to include analysis of heavy metals in environmental impact surveys for these projects.
P21
© The Author(s), 2023
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