I’ve never really given much consideration to what happens to my toilet waste after i pull the chain. At home of course its treated at dedicated plants and disposed of correctly – but what about when we stay on a beautiful tropical island or stilt resorts over the ocean, where does it go then ?


Large containers of Plants filter the wastewater

The truth is in some cases our sewage can be extremely detrimental to our environment, especially within small islands where government treatment plants are not available.

Take for example the situation on Sipadan Island, where ground water became polluted due to untreated wastewater, sewage seeped out to the sea and polluted the surrounding ocean.

Forward thinking Kapalai Dive Resort and Lankayan Island Resort in Sabah Borneo both use the Hydroponics system to treat all sewage and wastewater before it is discharged to the open sea.

The waste is pumped through several large containers containing plants and ozone which filter the bacteria and harmful microorganisms and purify the water. At the same time plants absorb their required nutrients and enrich the water with O2.

This responsible method of treatment not only produces clean water that can be re-used but also irrigates the resort plant nursery and so saves on water consumption.


Filtered water can be re-used or discharged
to the ocean with no harmful effects to the

The initial set up cost for such treatment systems is fairly expensive and every year they must be maintained – this is perhaps why other resorts are not adopting the same concept.

However with growing environmental awareness we as guests should support resorts that genuinely adhere to responsible sewage and waste disposal practices. They may be slightly more expensive than others in the area but in our opinion this is for good reason. Sadly we have witnessed how some budget resorts save money and its the environment that pays the ultimate price.

We will certainly be voting with our feet and support places that we feel make efforts to not only protect their surrounding environment but also not harm it.

To our knowledge the only two resorts to use this in Sabah are those mentioned above.