Greening Hotels project helps SME hotel install sewage treatment plant

The European Union funded SWITCH-Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels project, implemented by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, has been in operation since 2009 and has successfully engaged 170 hotels throughout Sri Lanka, helping them to enhance their environmental performance through improvement of energy, water and waste management.

Subsequent to the promotional seminars, signing-up of hotels for the project and the conducting of training workshops, free walk through audits and detailed energy audits of individual hotels have now commenced.

These audits highlight major areas where quick interventions can be undertaken by the hotel to improve energy, water and waste consumption patterns. The project is also fast becoming a single focal point as a sustainable activity match-maker for the registered hotels and the suppliers.

Consequently, it was identified that Thambapanni Retreat, a 15 roomed property in Galle, one of the hotels working closely with the project was in urgent need of a sewage treatment plant, in order to manage their wastewater from toilets, bathrooms and the kitchen in an environmentally friendly manner. The project engineering staff studied the hotel’s requirements and introduced a few wastewater treatment service providers whose technologies could be recommended.

The hotel identified the Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) type sewage treatment plant offered by Klaro Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. as the most suitable solution which was chosen with the collaborative guidance and assistance provided by the project experts. The sewage treatment plant is now in successful operation at the hotel premises.