News Desk
MALÉ, Maldives — President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu announced this week that one of the world’s largest dredgers has begun intensive land-reclamation work on Rasmale, a planned 1,009-hectare net-zero eco-city the government is billing as the country’s most ambitious climate-adaptation project to date.
On social media, the president said the Belgian-owned trailer suction hopper dredger Cristóbal Colón — described as one of only two vessels of its size worldwide — began pumping sand into the Fushidhiggaru Lagoon at dawn. By midday, sand-laying operations were already underway, tripling the pace of earlier reclamation efforts.
The president described Rasmale as his “dream project,” saying it would be developed as a “100 percent net-zero carbon, smart eco-city.” He emphasized that the new island is intended to provide a permanent solution to the housing crisis, with space for 20,000 residents.
About 100 hectares — roughly 10 percent of the planned area, and more than half the size of Hulhumalé — have already been reclaimed. Once complete, the government intends to allocate 25,000 residential plots: 15,000 individual land parcels and 7,500 apartments. Applications are scheduled to open on Jan. 4, 2026.
The accelerated timeline is made possible by the Cristóbal Colón, a 17,000-cubic-meter vessel operated by the Luxembourg-based Jan De Nul Group. The same dredger was deployed last week to speed up Phase 3 of Hulhumalé’s expansion, which officials say will be finished by year’s end. Afterward, the ship will move to the nearby Gulhi Falhu lagoon for another reclamation project expected to wrap up within two to three months.
The Maldives, a low-lying archipelago acutely vulnerable to rising seas, has long relied on land reclamation to expand its habitable area. Greater Malé, home to nearly a third of the country’s 500,000 people, faces chronic overcrowding and soaring property prices. Rasmale is the centrepiece of President Muizzu’s campaign pledge to deliver long-term housing relief while embedding renewable energy and green infrastructure from the outset.
Critics warn that large-scale dredging could damage fragile coral ecosystems and strain a tourism-dependent economy still recovering from the pandemic. Officials counter that advanced technology and an accelerated schedule will minimize ecological harm while delivering urgently needed living space.
With the giant dredger now working around the clock, the outlines of Rasmale are emerging faster than any previous reclamation effort in Maldivian history — a visible symbol, supporters say, of a nation literally building new ground beneath its feet in the face of a warming planet.
