Environmental audit for the compliance and registration of existing water plant at Cocoa Island Resort, K.Makunufushi

Abstract

1. Cocoa Island Resort (Makunufushi), South Malé Atoll, requires registration of their existing water production plant in operation. As part of the registration process an Environmental Audit (EA) has to be undertaken required under Schedule D of the Maldives Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation. A scoping meeting for this audit was held at EPA on 05 June 2011. The meeting was attended by the key stakeholders, official of EPA, the proponent and the consultant. The approved TOR is given in Appendix 1. 2. Cocoa Island is a small five-star resort with only 33 rooms. All rooms are on over-water located on southern side of the island. At full capacity the resort can accommodate 70 guests. The resort employs 155 staff and roughly 20% of them are administrative staff. The arrival jetty and service jetties are located on the northern side of the island. Owing to the island narrow (area ~ 3.0 hectare) back-of-the-house facilities are arranged in a compact way located on the western section of the island. The laundry, power house and water plant are all in very close proximity. 3. This EA concerns the status of the existing water production plant, documenting its operation, safety issues, and its potential environmental impacts of its operation and their possible mitigation measures. The management has plans to refurbish and renovate the water production facility in the next 2-3 months. These include change of pumps, meters, pipes and renovation of the building with sound proofing tiles. 4. As there is no arrangement for rainwater harvesting the water used on the island is entirely produced from the plant. Ground water has never been used on the resort and so the ground water no affected by the resort operation. At full capacity the plant is capable of producing 180m3 per day. The water is stored in 2 tanks; 40,000 litres and 15,000 litres located adjacent to the production facility. Roughly 70-80% of the production is consumed on the island on a daily basis. 5. The source of water is direct from the sea. Two high grade PVC pipes pipe lines, 5.0 – 6.0 cm diameter, run under the service jetty draws sea water direct from the reef edge at about 3 – 4 m, and feeds into the two sand filters before passing to the to RO membranes. The desalinated water are initially stored in 40,000 litre tank, but part of the water is re-fed into the second membrane system to produce “drinking water” stored in 15,000 litre tank. 6. Regular testing of the desalinated water from MFDA/NHL ensures the water quality is maintained. The Engineering Department is responsible for this task of water quality testing that includes water chemistry and microbiology tests. Full records of the tests are maintained at the Engineering Department of the resort for inspection. 7. It was concluded that environmental standards meet expected levels required by the existing government rules. The only issue that required to be followed up was the noise levels. The issue will be solved once the renovation is complete.