What has Herathera brought to Addu atoll?
I just came back to Male’ after a brief visit to Addu. It was awesome, breathing fresh air, enjoying the natural beaches, and the sound of waves, even for a couple days. And one other thing that brought happiness to me was seeing people going to work to Herathera early morning in Lorries, most of whom are women. No wonder that Herathera has brought job opportunities to many Adduans. Several people I knew before, who had no jobs are now working and earning an acceptable income at Herathera resort. Surely, this is more then a dream comes true for many Adduans.
Despite these advantages, there are certain issues that require immediate attention with the opening of the resort at Addu. The availability of alcoholic drinks has increased a lot, and the “Alcohol business” has increased at the islands of Addu atoll. The low level of security, thus the ease in smuggling of such items to islands has created more victims addicted to such beverages. This definitely is something that the authorities should be more careful about, and something the authorities should look into. If left with out appropriate actions, the already addicted-to-drugs young community would surely end up in misery. And it would not only be a misery to those individuals, but a misery to the whole of Addu and Maldives as well.
In addition to this, there are speculations that the prostitution business is also increasing in Addu, with the developing tourism at Addu. There are families who bawl saying that their daughters were taken to the resort, and been sexually abused after giving them alcoholic beverages to a limit them passing out or stay barely conscious.
Such matters should not be ignored if the purpose of the resort at Addu is to develop and make Addu a better place.
-thadu-
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