Off the Indian Ocean, very close to the capital city of the Maldives, Male, an entire city is being built above water. The floating city is designed to accommodate approximately 20,000 people and is scheduled to be entirely finished in 2027.
The shape of the city resembles a species of coral known as brain corals. The complex will include around 5000 buildings, represented by houses, schools, shops and restaurants, basically everything that is necessary for life in a normal city. Traveling inside the city will be possible via canals that connect all the areas between them.
While the first buildings will be ready in June, the first people who will inhabit them will arrive at the complex at the beginning of 2024, according to CNN.
The ambitious project is the result of the collaboration between a renowned developer of floating cities from the Netherlands, Dutch Docklands International, and the Government of the Maldives. The initiative is meant to be a solution to a serious problem that is threatening the archipelago of the Maldives, which is the rising sea levels caused by climate change. According to CNN, “eighty percent of its land area is less than one meter above sea level, and with levels projected to rise up to a meter by the end of the century, almost the entire country could be submerged.”
This innovative solution relies on the logic that if a city floats and the water levels rise, then the city will rise with the water, preventing it from being submerged. The concept of floating cities is a breath of fresh air for people living in areas threatened by rising sea levels, giving them hope for a normal and safe life.
According to USA Today, the president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, declared that “our adaption to climate change mustn’t destroy nature but work with it, as the Maldives Floating City proposes. In the Maldives we cannot stop the waves, but we can rise with them.”