‘Do drink the local water’ is the advice given to guests staying at the all-suite Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa Maldives as it begins producing its own drinking water this August. The move to produce fresh water, made from desalinated ocean water, is one of the luxury resort’s newest steps towards delivering services with a sound environmentally-friendly purpose.
“With the move to producing our own drinking water, we expect to save around 3,000 kilos of empty plastic bottles each year,” said general manager, Carsten Schieck. “Producing our own water saves on importing tonnes of bottled water each year and more importantly of course, greatly reduces the number of plastic bottles we need to dispose of in a country that’s still working on refining its recycling capabilities.
The five-star island resort expects to produce around 400 litres of drinking water every day – including both still and sparkling varieties – saving the importation of around 12 tonnes of drinking water each month. Tucked away in the middle of the staff village, the bottling plant is located behind the resort’s water desalination plant from where the water is piped in and undergoes two more rounds of filtration and sterilisation to ensure it meets international drinking standards. The water is served to guests in glass bottles which are then returned to the bottling plant for washing and re-filling.
Future ecological plans include the planting of organic herb gardens on the island, collecting rain water, recycling ‘grey water’ to use for watering the gardens in times of drought, identifying composting and waste re-use opportunities and increasing usage of solar power in various areas.
