EU grants Euro 2 million: Small hotels to go green in Sri Lanka

The small and medium scale tourist hotel chain in Sri Lanka plays a major role in promoting Sri Lanka as a travel destination.
Going in line with it, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce has initiated SWITCH ASIA Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project in collaboration with the European Union.
The project will assist 350 small and medium scale tourist hotels in water, energy and waste management efficiencies. Apart from that, main suppliers to the hotel industry, tour operators and customers of tourist hotels will also be informed of the need to increase efficiency in water, energy and waste management systems, SWITCH ASIA Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project Consultant Director Srilal Miththapala said at the launch of the project. He said there are 256 hotels in the country.
Three star, two star and one star hotels catering to tourists will be developed as greening hotels.
Project will reduce operation costs. It will also increase market acceptance of Sri Lankan hotels by promoting them as green hotels.
"The European Union has granted Euro 2 million for the project. It will bring together several institutions such as Responsible Tourism Partnership (RTP), Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority of Sri Lanka (SLSEA), Institute of Environment Professionals of Sri Lanka (IEPSL) and Travel Foundation, UK for the project," he said.
The project duration will be 48 months. It expects to reduce cost of operations in tourist hotels. A cohesive team will work closely with the hotel team and train them to reduce energy, water consumption and waste generation.
Hotels will be informed to sign up with regional offices and is expected to bring down the rapidly increasing overhead costs in the hotel industry.
Apart from that it is also expected to increase the market acceptance of Sri Lankan hotels by promoting them as green hotels. The greening concept has to be introduced to household level in the future. HP

Lanka joins with ‘1,000 cities – 1,000 lives’ campaign

Today is World Health Day. This year’s theme is `Urbanization and health – Urban health matters’. To mark this day, Sri Lanka will join with 1,000 Cities – 1,000 Lives campaign organised by the WHO, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry sources said.

According to the sources seven cities from Sri Lanka will join the 1,000 Cities – 1000 Lives campaign. They are Thamankaduwa, Puttalam, Tangalle, Ampara, Baticaloa, Moratuwa and Dehiwala. The main objective of the program is to raise public awareness on possible health risks and diseases that are directly connected with urbanization. MOHs of the relevant cities and other health officials will coordinate the program.

The city of Thamankaduwa will be reawakened under the theme of ‘Pubudamu Pulatisi’ while Ampara will be upgraded into a `smoke free city’. Since there is a direct connection between spread of dengue fever and urbanization, the Ministry will pay special attention towards implementing this program.

Technical assistance is provided by Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry, provincial and regional health authorities in collaboration with WCO Sri Lanka for all the programs, the sources said. According to the WHO, urbanization is associated with many health challenges related to water, environment, violence and injury, non communicable diseases, unhealthy diets and physical activities, harmful use of alcohol as well as the risks associated with disease outbreaks. In 2007 for the first time in history,over half of the world’s population was living in cities and by 2030, six out of every 10 people will be living in urban areas.

source:Daily News