Human enterprise knows no bounds, and the people of Maldives have proved this. They have built a new island to contain the overflowing population of the capital Male. "The project was launched because of land shortage in Male. We've taken a shallow lagoon and created a totally new piece of land,' says Mohamed Shahid of the Hulhumale Development Unit. Nearly 1,500 people have already started living on the 188.2-hectare island.

The Hulhumale island is a giant building site where the government wants nearly 50,000 people to migrate in the coming 15 years. After 40 years, when the project will finish, it will house nearly 153,000 people, more than half of the country's present population. The island is built two metres above sea level as a protection against global warming and changing weather patterns that threaten low-lying islands.