Aaaaah The Maldives... OMG is that an island made entirely from trash???

The Maldives... the mere mention of the name conjures up images like these:

Wow what an amazing place - crystal clear seas, not a wave in sight... paradise!
Except for one little thing called "Thilafushi", and it 'aint so little either.

Thilafushi is an attempt at the solution to the ever-growing waste problem of the Maldives' capital city, Malé.
Since 1992, rubbish has been shipped to the island and dumped into its' lagoon. The island today covers an area of 124 acres and is growing at a rate of 1 square metre per day, and it looks like this:

So there you have it - a little-known feature of the Maldives which has certainly made me think a bit differently about the place, and about the way we live in general.
To think that every tourist produces 3.5kg of rubbish and requires 500 litres of water a day...!!