Talk:Administrative divisions of the Maldives

Mischaracterized Information
Although purporting to show the atolls of the Maldives, in fact it shows administrative divisions of the Maldivian government. Some divisions incorporate more than one atoll and many encompass only a part of an atoll. The article stubs generated from the table are even less accurate, again purporting to provide information on each "atoll", but not so, being again administrative divisions of an archipelago. The information here is useful, but mischaracterized - Marshman 01:45, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Splitting
Suggest splitting article into two parts: geografic atolls and administrative atolls. lexa 08:32, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Atolls_of_the_Maldives"

Demand
As you can see above, there was a demand for two separate pages, so I have tried to do my best. I hope there is more clarity now that the Physical and the Administrative aspects of the country have been put under two separate headings. Mohonu 03:48, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Province mix-up
In the table of provinces, under the heading "The Provinces of Maldives", South Central Province is identified with Gaafu Alifu and Gaafu Dhaalu atolls, and Upper South Province with Thaa and Laamu. (The same arrangement&mdash;let's call it A&mdash;is used elsewhere on the page.) I have reason to believe that those should be reversed. That is, South Central should be Thaa and Laamu atolls, and Upper South should be the two parts of Gaaf (call this B).

You can find support for either arrangement on the Internet. On this map (at the upper left of the page), the South Central label goes on Thaa and Laamu, as with B. On this map, on the contrary, South Central province contains the Gaafs, as with A.

Even Wikipedia has support for B. The list at Republic_of_the_Maldives includes "5. Medhu-Dhekunu Province; consists of Thaa Atoll and Laamu Atoll", and Medhu-Dhekunu means "South Central" according to every source I consulted.

Evidence for A came from the map on the "Isles egov" site; but the home page of the same site has a row of index maps at the upper left, and the map labeled South Central shows two atolls that are shaped like Thaa and Laamu. This same page has a drop-down list under "SEARCH" called "List Islands in Province". If you select South Central province from the list, a scrollable box opens up with a list of islands stated to belong to Thaa and Laamu atolls (and no Gaafs). In short, the sites that support A also contradict themselves.

The other sources I've found all support B. There is a document titled "Strengthening Local Governance in Maldives", from the Presidents Office & Ministry of Home Affairs, March, 2009. At the top of p. 4, row 5 of the table says that South Central Province contains Thaa and Laamu. On the Ministry of Education website, if you click on the South Central link, you get the list of school heads in Thaa and Laamu atolls. An article in Haveeru Online lists the province office heads in a sequence which would be strictly north-to-south under B, but not under A.

The logic of the names also supports B. The Maldives are long and narrow, along a north-south axis. If B is correct, the province names, from north to south, are


 * Upper North
 * _____ North
 * North Central
 * _____ Central
 * South Central
 * Upper South
 * _____ South

I inserted underscores to make the pattern more evident. The first two end in "North", the next three end in "Central", and the last two end in "South". The names that end in "Central" begin with "North", blank, and "South". The names that end in "North" begin with "Upper" and blank; so do the names that end in "South". Under the other hypothesis, the list would read from north to south:


 * Upper North
 * _____ North
 * North Central
 * _____ Central
 * Upper South
 * South Central
 * _____ South

Here the pattern appears disturbed.

If I don't see any discussion supporting A in the next month or two, I'll switch the provinces around to B. Gwil (talk) 01:57, 27 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Looks like someone fixed this on May 19, 2011, in regard to section 2 (Codes and Names of the Administrative Divisions). I fixed section 3 (The Provinces of Maldives) today, so the article is consistent.
 * Gwil (talk) 02:18, 31 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Ziansh made a series of updates that removed any information that could be used to match specific atolls with provinces. His or her position seems to be that the seven divisions are national administrations, not provinces, and should not be counted as administrative divisions of Maldives. I have no opinion on that, one way or the other. There appears to be a conflict between President Nasheed and the Majlis over this issue. I do have one more source supporting arrangement B. The World Health Organization has a set of province maps that agree with B.
 * Gwil (talk) 14:55, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

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number
The lede says there are 19 atolls and 3 cities, the table lists 19+2, and the map shows 20 divisions. Which is correct? --Lasunncty (talk) 01:13, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Islands are Administrative Divisions
"The administrative definition of an "island" differs from the actual meaning of the word 'island'. While naturally, an "island" refers to a land-mass surrounded by water, an "island" in the administrative sense, refers to a specified inhabited area within an administrative atoll, which is governed over by an "island council". While the majority of "island" class constituencies are indeed natural islands. There are 189 such islands, each with its own island council."

A few questions. First, just to be sure, are administrative islands subordinate to administrative atolls? In the case that they are, they should be indented under "atolls" to show this, as a lower-level subdivision or administration. Second, this paragraph makes mention of inhabited islands, are uninhabited islands a part of an administrative islands, or are they under the administration of the administrative atoll councils? The subordination of uninhabited islands needs to be specified. Also, the third sentence doesn't appear to be a complete one? I think it can be folded into the other ones.

This just needs to be edited for flow and clarity, I think. And perhaps we should even use "administrative island/atoll" when we are talking about them in that context to avoid confusion. Criticalthinker (talk) 04:21, 29 April 2024 (UTC)