Three lagoons were handed over as compensation to the leaseholder of the Giraavaru lagoon before the previous government started land reclamation for awarding plots to native residents of Male’, Adhadhu has learned.

But since former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced the project in his 2022 presidential address, the government to date has not said whether the lagoon had been leased or involved the rights of a third party.

Based on research of publicly available information from various government sources, Adhadhu found that the Giraavaru lagoon had been leased to the late Abdul Rauf (Giraavaru Rauf). However, it is unclear when the lagoon was leased. After his death, the leaseholder rights of the lagoon were transferred to his heirs.

The Giraavaru lagoon was leased to Rauf under the agreement for the Kaafu Giraavaru island. One document that backs this is a letter sent to Rauf by the Tourism Ministry on July 24, 2014. A “conditional approval” for the redevelopment of the area within Giraavaru’s boundary had been granted in the letter.

The rights over the surrounding lagoon are not normally granted when islands are leased for resort development.

According to the “Regulation on the boundary of tourist establishments” followed by the Tourism Ministry, the boundary of islands leased for resort development is 500 meters from the mean tide line if a resort island’s lagoon extends 500 meters beyond the mean tide line at dry land. The leaseholder can pay a fee of USD 100,000 for an extension of a further 1,000 metres. If the lagoon is smaller than 500 metres, the boundary will be the edge of the island’s outer reef from the mean tide line at dry land.

However, the Tourism Ministry has the authority to demarcate a resort’s boundary either in the lease agreement or through a revision made to the agreement. According to the abovementioned letter, the transaction occurred during the tenure of Tourism Minister Ahmed Adeeb, the former Vice President and chief architect of the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) corruption scandal.

List of islands and lagoons exchanged by the Tourism Ministry in 2022.

As successive administrations conducted transactions related to the Giraavaru lagoon without any transparency, it was the Tourism Ministry’s 2022 annual report that revealed the leasing of two lagoons from Male’ atoll and one lagoon from Ari atoll to Rauf’s heirs, who held the leaseholder rights for the Giraavaru lagoon. Three lagoons had been leased in exchange for the “Giraavaru boundary,” the report stated.

Lagoons leased in exchange for Giraavaru lagoon (in decimal degrees)

• North Male’ atoll lagoon (83 hectares) - Latitude 4.2960111 Longitude 73.47802777777778
• North Ari Atoll lagoon/Fushi Faru (284 hectares) - Latitude 3.9486333 Longitude 72.94558333333333
• South Male’ atoll lagoon (40 hectares) - Latitude 3.9283972 Longitude 73.45778333333334

Of the lagoons leased in exchange for Giraavaru lagoon, agreements for the lagoon in Male’ atoll and Fushi Faru in Ari atoll were signed on September 22, 2022. The agreement for the lagoon in South Male’ atoll was signed on September 20, 2022. Not too long after they were handed over, Rauf’s heirs sold the lagoons to a company called Cool Shades Investment Pvt Ltd.

The Giraavaru lagoon is a 278-hectare lagoon near Male’ in the tourism “premium zone” with the highest demand from investors. The three lagoons provided in exchange are also in the premium zone with a combined area of 407 hectares.

Concept proposed to develop two resorts in Giraavaru lagoon. -- Photo: EIA report of the project

Only EIA to develop resort in Giraavaru lagoon

Despite the leasing of three lagoons as compensation for the Giraavaru lagoon, there had not been any effort to develop a resort in the Giraavaru lagoon. The only sign of the resort development was an environment impact assessment (EIA) report prepared by a company called TBI Maldives in 2020.

Rauf’s heirs own a stake in TBI. The EIA from TBI proposed reclaiming an 8.7-hectare island and an 8.3-hectare island in the Giraavaru lagoon with 160 rooms, including 120 water villas, to be developed on each island.

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) approved the EIA but satellite photos show that TBI had not started land reclamation when the previous government contracted Sri Lanka’s Capital Marine Construction Company (CMCC) to reclaim the lagoon for its housing project. Adhadhu studied satellite photos of Giraavaru from 2021 and 2022 to confirm this.

The previous government had also faced criticism over the leasing of a large lagoon and island as a cross-subsidy for the Giraavaru lagoon land reclamation. The Noonu Dhakennanfaru island and Dhigufaru lagoon were leased to an investor who provided financing for the Giraavaru reclamation.

An additional island and lagoon were also leased to a party that provided funds for the Giraavaru lagoon reclamation project. These were the Vaavu Fotteyo lagoon and Raa Fenfushi island leased to a company with ties to Aman Resorts.