12 January 2005
By Reuters, Male


Some parts of the Maldives were so severely lashed by tsunami that the government says the map of the paradise cluster of nearly 1 200 tiny islands literally needs to be redrawn.

If the view from a low-flying seaplane is anything to go by, it is easy to see why.

A sweep over the large Hakuraa Club Resort in the southern reaches of the Indian Ocean island chain reveals how waves have torn into the centre of the crescent-shaped island and sucked out tons of sand. The roof of a beach bungalow floats oddly intact near Medhufushi Resort, surrounded by wood that used to be the rest of the building.

A speedboat on the pavement

All over the eastern fringe of the Meemu atoll, palm trees bob about in clear waters like dead centipedes in a giant bath.

Some are still rooted to what was dry land before the tsunami struck two weeks ago but is now underwater, more than 30m out to sea.

Most of the low-lying Maldives escaped the full fury of the tsunami, but without the protection of reefs, the south-eastern stretch of atolls famed for some of the world's best scuba diving took a direct hit, with waves battering islands into new shapes and in some cases wiping them off the map altogether.

"The tsunami changed the map of the Maldives so much that we need to commission a new survey of the country," said Mohamed Shareef, an environmental expert

BBC adds: A sea wall protecting the Maldives capital, Male, prevented half the city from being destroyed by the tsunami, the United Nations says.

Its representative in the Maldives, Mohamed Latheef, said that while the city was flooded, the wall saved properties from being badly damaged. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ended a 24-hour visit to the islands on Monday to see the devastation for himself. More than 80 people were killed by the waves in the Maldives archipelago. "The impact was less important because of the wall," said Latheef.

"We couldn't avoid having Male flooded. But without the wall, half of Male would have been totally destroyed. Male didn't sustain any major destruction of properties," he said.