Three--quarters of a million tourists flock to the white beaches every year,but this booming industry has come at a price.Poisonous smoke rising from open fires,rubbish made up of plastic bottles,packets...it'S a _ from the white sands,clear waters and palm trees that we associate with the Maldives ,the paradise island holiday destination set in the Indian Ocean. of its 200 inhabited islands,which are spread across an area of"35,000 square miles,99 are good resorts .So many tourists come every year,more than double the local population.Of these,over l 00,000 travel from the U K.The capital,Mal6,is four times more densely populated than London.Given these facts,it'S hardly surprising that the Maldives has a waste disposal problem. Y ears a90,when the tourists left,the government had to deal with a stream of rubbish.Their solution was to turn one of the islands into a dumping ground.Four miles west of Mal6 is the country's dumping ground,Thilafushi.What you are seeing here is a view of the Maldives on which no honeymooners will ever clap eyes.Each visitor produces 3.5 kg of waste per day.The country dumps more than 330 tons of rubbish on the island every day. Now,since many waste boats,fed up with waiting seven hours or more,directly offload their goods into the sea,the government of the Maldives has banned the dumping of waste on the island.S0,the waste boats ship the rubbish to India instead. What is the main cause of the waste disposal problem?
The big local population. Too many waste boats. The large number of tourists. Open fires on the islands.