Kandhuvalu Council Seven hundred and eighty people, ninety farming plots, and a harbour being built
Kandhuvalu island council

A growing island, with the harbour finally being built

Plot leases and the planting rotation, the produce boat on Monday and Thursday, what the harbour works close and when, the water arrangements for the dry months, and the ferry days. Three council members, four staff, and one office on Falhu Magu.

Ask the office What the council does

What this island lives on

Ninety three farming plots, about forty of them worked seriously, and the rest kept in rotation or resting. Chillies, cucumber, watermelon, banana, breadfruit, curry leaf and some papaya. Two households keep poultry.

All of it leaves on the produce boat, twice a week, which is the single most important arrangement on this island and the thing the council spends most of its time on.

The harbour under construction changes that. Until now the boat has loaded off the beach on a rising tide, which costs three hours and a great deal of arguing about whose crates go first. From the middle of next year it will load alongside in twenty minutes at any state of the tide, which is worth more to a grower here than any other thing the council could have asked for.

The office

What the council handles

Seven things. Plots and the rotation, the produce boat, water, waste, the harbour works, the register and letters, and the mosque and burial ground.

Farming plots, leases and the rotation

Ninety three plots on the register, a five year lease at two hundred rufiyaa a year, and a rotation the council keeps rather than decides alone.

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The produce boat, crates and the loading order

Monday and Thursday. Crates marked with the plot number, at the south point by half past five, loaded in the order the register says.

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Water: tanks, standpipes and the dry months

A hundred household tanks, four standpipes, and a rationing arrangement for February and March that the growers agreed to.

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The harbour project and what each stage closes

Not the council's project. The council sits in the site meetings, publishes each stage before it starts, and reports what it is told.

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Waste, the compost yard and what is not collected

One round on Sunday and Wednesday, thirty rufiyaa a month, and green waste that becomes compost the growers take back.

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Letters, the register, the hall and the tractor

Address and household letters at fifteen rufiyaa, the hall for a hundred and fifty, and a tractor that does most things on this island.

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See all of them
The harbour works

What is closed, and when it opens again

The north beach is closed

The whole stretch from the old loading point to the coconut line, for the length of the works. It is a site, not a beach, and children should not be on it.

Loading moves to the south point

Until the new quay is usable. Longer to carry crates and a shallower approach, which is why the boat now leaves at six rather than five.

Dredging noise, seven until five

No work at night, no work on Friday, and nothing before seven. Report anything outside those hours to the office the same day.

Stage three from March

The quay wall and the ramp. The council publishes each stage, its dates and what it closes, before the stage begins rather than after.

The island, in numbers

780
People on the island register
93
Farming plots on the register
2
Produce boat mornings a week
62
Children at the island school
Finished and paid for

What the council has done

A hundred household water tanks, the compost yard, and the track out to the plots.

One hundred household water tanks
Kandhuvalu Council 2023

One hundred household water tanks

A tank, a gutter and a first flush for every household that wanted one, and the argument about the twenty two that had one already.
The compost yard, which replaced the burning pit
Kandhuvalu Council 2024

The compost yard, which replaced the burning pit

Eleven bays at the east end, and compost that goes back to the growers by the trailer load before planting.
The track out to the plots
Kandhuvalu Council 2022

The track out to the plots

Nine hundred metres of compacted track a trailer can use in the rain, which changed what a grower can carry.
See the projects
From the island

What people say

The loading order rotates now. I am seventy one and before that I loaded last every single week, because I cannot be on the beach at half past four. Somebody wrote a list and it fixed it.

A Ali Manik Grower, plots 41 and 42, Kandhuvalu

We had a drum and a bucket. Now there is a tank with a gutter and that thing that throws the first water away, and we did not queue once last March.

F Fathimath Suneetha Resident, Falhu Magu, Kandhuvalu

The council told us plainly that the harbour is not theirs and they cannot order the contractor about. Then they got the working hours moved and a bowser for the dust. I would rather be told the truth and get two things.

I Ibrahim Zubair Grower and cooperative member, Kandhuvalu
Plots and planting

Leases, the rotation and the water

How do I get a plot?

Ask at the office. A lease is five years at two hundred rufiyaa a year, to a household on the island register, and a household may hold two plots.

Plots come free when a lease ends or when one goes back into the pool for not being worked. There are usually two or three a year. The office keeps the waiting list in order with the date each name was added, and it is on the noticeboard.

Can I lose a plot?

Yes, if it grows nothing for two full seasons. The land is the council's and the lease requires the plot to be worked.

It has happened eleven times and every one of them was decided at an open meeting with the holder invited, never by a letter out of the blue. Illness, a death in the family or a bad year are all reasons the council has accepted, and they are worth coming in and saying rather than letting a plot sit.

Who decides which plots are rested?

The growers do, at the meeting before the planting season. Twenty of the ninety three are rested each year and the growers propose which twenty.

The council keeps the record of what was rested when, so the same plots are not rested twice while others are never rested at all. Eleven plots have never been rested since the register began in 1994 and the council puts that on the table every year.

Does a plot lease mean I own the land?

No, and the paper says so in one sentence. It is a lease of council land for five years, renewable.

The council cannot decide who owns any land on this island, turn a lease into ownership, or write anything that suggests either, and nothing said at this office is a ruling. Ownership questions belong to the office that holds that authority, and the council will take your paperwork, attach what its own register shows, forward it and chase it.

The produce boat loads Monday and Thursday

Crates at the south point by half past five, marked with your plot number. Tell the office by Sunday night if you have more than fifteen.

Send word to the office Ring the council
Ask, report or complain

Write to the office

It is a small island and most things are settled by walking in. This form is for the ones that need writing down, and everything written down gets a number.

We reply to every message. Leave a phone number if you would rather we called.

  • Where we are Council Office
    Falhu Magu, Kandhuvalu
    Maldives
  • Call us +960 668 3319
  • WhatsApp 9607683319
  • Email us office@kandhuvalu.mv
  • Opening hours Office: Sunday to Thursday, 8am to 1pm Afternoons by arrangement, and somebody is usually there Produce boat mornings: Monday and Thursday from 5am Closed Friday and Saturday