Elpitiya Plantations Plc Annual Report 2010/11 - Colombo Stock ...

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORT (contd.)
Environmental Conservation
In the context of the plantation sector, environmental conservation
is two pronged – controlling the soil erosion, soil pollution, water
pollution and land loss caused by the process of cultivation, and
managing the energy consumed by estates, and the Tea, Rubber
and Palm Oil factories.
The team at Elpitiya is in the process of gradually replacing
artificial fertilizer with organic fertilizer to minimise the impact to
the soil, by moving into site specific fertilizing, which provide only
the required nutrients. Compost pits are also maintained in the
estates for this purpose with the long term goal of replacing one
round of artificial fertiliser with compost/ organic fertiliser on all
the estates.
At Deviturai Estate, a new secondary level wastewater treatment
unit, including anaerobic and aerobic tanks and a clarifier tank,
was built . This followed tests carried out on a collection of water
samples for contamination levels. Henceforth, water samples will
be tested randomly for Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) levels from Deviturai as well as
other estates to identify and mitigate significant impacts to the
environment.
The plantations also grow leguminous cover crops in order to
improve soil properties, reduce soil erosion and to control the
growth of weeds which would otherwise require chemicals and
weedicides.
Tea estates of Elpitiya Plantations do not produce effluents
or waste water that can be considered significant to require
immediate attention. The estate management has undertaken
to minimise, and eventually eliminate, the spraying of pesticides
to control tea tortrix by pursuing biological methods such as
collection of egg masses and using moth traps.
Elpitiya Plantations works with their communities to reduce their
solid waste generation and also harvests rain water to improve
moisture content in the micro environment.
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Elpitiya Plantations Plc Annual Report 2010/11