Soneva Not Only Set Standards in Luxury, But Also for Clean Water Around the Globe

Monday 16th of November 2020

2008 was a great year for Soneva, one of the most popular luxury resort chains. The brand won WTTC Tourism for Tomorrow Award - Global Tourism Business and its Six Senses Samui was awarded Best of the Best by the readers of Condé Nast Traveller UK. But most importantly, this was the year Soneva banned branded bottled water across all its resorts.

Since then, the resorts filter and mineralise their own still and sparkling drinking water, serving it in reusable glass bottles. As well as preventing an estimated 1.5 million plastic water bottles from being produced over the last 10 years, Soneva also supports more than 500 clean water projects around the world with revenues from Soneva Water.

Soneva Water was established as a social enterprise to eliminate imported plastic bottled water on Maalhos, a neighbouring island of Soneva Fushi. From a solar-powered desalination plant, water will be filtered using carbon resin and reverse osmosis, mineralised, UV sterilised, and bottled in reusable, eco-friendly bottles.

These bottles will then be delivered to households, guest houses, cafes, schools, and businesses in 500ML reusable glass bottles or 5 gallon (19 litre) reusable polycarbonate bottles. Once the water is consumed, the empty bottles will be collected and replaced with a fresh bottle of water.

This is the first service of its kind outside of the capital city, Malé. It prevents thousands of water bottles from being produced, transported to the island, and then incinerated or thrown into landfills or the sea.