Soneva Water
280,000 single-use plastic (SUP) bottles are produced daily in the Maldives, with many discarded bottles ending up washed up on coasts, reefs and in marine eco-systems. Soneva Water provides an affordable alternative to SUP water bottles: desalinated, purified and mineralised drinking water in reusable bottles at competitive prices.
Since 2018 we have sold over 460,000 litres of water preventing over a million SUP bottles from going into landfill or the ocean. Our community-run water bottling plants are located in Namoona islands Maalhos in Baa Atoll and Kudafari in Noonu Atoll. Both plants deliver water in reusable glass bottles to cafes, guesthouses and households.
Alun Balun
The Alun Balun resale market is an initiative of the Women’s Development Committees (WDC) of seven Namoona islands in Baa Atoll and six Namoona islands in Noonu Atoll . The market helps create a culture of reusing good quality used items, particularly clothes, rather than throwing them away. This reduces the volume of waste sent to landfill at the same time as generating income for the WDCs.
The Alun Balun market collects second hand clothes and goods from each of the participating islands and distributes them to the other participating islands, overcoming the challenge of reselling items within small island communities and inspiring us to think twice before throwing an item away.
Israafu Madhu Misraabu
Islands in Baa Atoll have only recently received piped tap water. To encourage the adoption of tap water, and to discourage buying single use plastic bottled water, Soneva Namoona, in partnership with local islands, is hosting a series of water filter expos, branded “Israafu Madhu Misraabu”. The aim is to provide communities with information about the environmental and health benefits of water filtration systems, as well as access to suppliers, product catalogues, discounted prices and financing schemes that will enable them to adopt water filtration systems over plastic packaged water.
Our first Expo was in Baa Maalhos. The whole community participated and we are currently supporting the council’s efforts to introduce a water filtration financing scheme.
Budu Fothi
Typically, a baby gets through up to 6,000 disposable nappies by the time they are potty trained. In 2021 alone, an estimated 84,000 nappies were removed from the waste management centres of just five Namoona islands, making nappies the second largest source of plastic waste in the Maldives.
In 2021, we ran a reusable nappy trial with the community of Kihaadhoo to allow parents to try out washable cloth nappies before making a financial investment. The trial was a great success, with 3 out of 4 Kihaadhoo families with babies in favour of switching to reusable nappies. Soneva Namoona can play a key role in encouraging behaviour change and sourcing alternative products.
In July 2024, Soneva Namoona launched another three-month long reusable nappy trial in Noonu Magoodhoo. All diapering babies on the island participated in the trial paving the way for a whole of island transformation. The results of this trial will provide key insights into the foundational pieces to create behaviour change and to establish sustainable value chains for single-use plastic alternatives.
Enmenah Engey Bodu Sirru
It is estimated that an individual uses 11,000 – 15,000 disposable menstrual products in a lifetime. Often times such disposable products are made with plastics that take years to completely breakdown.
Enmenah Engey Bodu Sirru (EEBS) is a collaborative effort by Soneva Namoona, UNFPA Maldives and ZeroWaste Maldives, aimed at educating women and girls on sustainable menstrual and reproductive health. This initiative integrates education on sustainable menstrual products, challenges societal taboos and empowers women with knowledge for healthier choices, while promoting environmental consciousness. So far, through this partnership, over 200 women across 9 islands in Noonu and Baa Atolls have enhanced their knowledge of reproductive health and sustainable menstrual hygiene management practices.
In 2024, we launched the EEBS Training of Trainers (ToT) program to create a pool of trainers equipped to conduct sessions nationwide, fostering a broader understanding and adoption of sustainable menstrual practices.