First national conference on waste management in Maldives to be held in July

The first national conference on waste management in Maldives, "Magey Saafu Raajje National Conference 2025," is set to be held next month.

The Ministry of Environment announced the conference at a ceremony held this morning at the Magey Saafu Raajje Building located in Malé Industrial Zone area.

In a statement released by the ministry, they said that under the "Magey Saafu Raajje" program announced by this government to further develop and improve waste management work at the national level, work has now begun to further improve waste management in residential islands.

Under this work, the ministry said they have decided to hold a four-day conference from the 20th to the 23rd of next month to conduct national-level consultations on information about safe and sustainable waste management methods and the challenges and shortcomings in sustainably conducting waste management work.

At today's ceremony, Minister of Environment Thoriq Ibrahim introduced the official branding, website, and social media handles of the conference. Additionally, the work of organizing and managing the conference has been delegated to "Events Maldives," and an agreement has been signed.

The ministry said that approximately 500 people will participate in the conference, including all island councils, atoll councils, and city councils; all government institutions, companies, and associations related to waste management; and technical experts and experienced professionals from the tourism sector.

The conference will be held with funding from the "Maldives Clean Environment Project," which is being carried out by the Ministry of Environment with assistance from the World Bank, the ministry also stated.

At today's ceremony, Minister Thoriq said that in addition to the projects currently being implemented at island and atoll levels for waste management, providing necessary health information to councils for this work is very important.

Minister Thoriq also said that waste management work cannot be further improved without building upon the results from current and planned waste management facility development projects, the full implementation of different parties' roles in waste management work, information about the legal framework for waste management, and experiences and success stories from different islands.