Environment / Water

In an arid area like Elounda it is particularly important to save water, and it is crucial for the local communities that not too much water is diverted to the needs of tourism to the detriment of other economic activities. In the decades prior to year 2000, our company was very prudent with the water purchased from the local network, having installed low-consumption taps and double-action cisterns, drip irrigation everywhere and sub-surface watering of lawns. This water-saving mentality continued even after the year 2000, when we gradually stopped buying water from the network and installed seawater desalinators with advance energy recovery over 85%, which now cover our entire requirement.

Within this initial saving framework, we had built since the very first day of operation, our own wastewater treatment plant, which covered a large portion of our irrigation needs. The wastewater treatment unit was improved and expanded repeatedly over the years, until in 2002 we built the current facility which covers the needs of all three hotels, a visitor-friendly continuous-aeration facility with numerous filtering and disinfection technologies that render the water as good as potable. The old wastewater treatment facility was converted into a storage tank for irrigation water, allowing the collection of the entire effluent production and thus its use only at night, further saving water from minimized evaporation.

By the combination of these technologies, out hotels do not encumber the local communities with any water and sewage requirements.