No wonder that Male, the capital, is surrounded by a 3 meter-high wall, which took 14 years to construct at a cost of $63 million. Unable to foot the bill themselves, the government happily accepted aid from Japan, which paid for 99% of the cost. But the wall offers protection for just one of the Maldives' 200 inhabited island and then only against tidal surges rather than the rising sea level, the longer-term threat.