Financial Times

Local innovation earns recognition for Solex
A local gully sucker (bowser) produced speedily by Solex Engineering to meet post-tsunami sanitation management requirements has been lauded with the prestigious "Water for Life" Appreciation Award.

The annual award was presented by the Sri Lanka United Nations Friendship Organisation (SUNFO) at the UN World Water Day 2005 and international decade of Water for Life 2005-2015 commemoration ceremony held recently. The award was received by Upali Wijayasiri, Managing Director of the company.

The Water for Life SUNFO appreciation award 2005 was presented to SOLEX in recognition of the valuable contribution made towards the betterment of the Sri Lankan society through various water management and sanitation projects that were initiated by Solex, the company said in a statement.

The company engaged primarily in the business of providing pumping solutions to both homes and industrial facilities rose to the challenge of designing the gully sucker at 50% of the cost of imported units, which range between Rs. 6 to 7 million, while conforming to UNICEF standards. The gully sucker differs from the normal sewerage pumping mechanism as the waste has to be pumped, transported and disposed.

UNICEF as part of its tsunami relief operations identified the need for gully suckers to manage the issue of providing toilet facilities to a large numbers of displaced people located at schools, temples, churches, etc. The temporarily erected cesspits at these camps need regular clean ups to prevent overflowing in order to maintain hygiene and prevent diseases.

"This is a great achievement for a small company such as Solex. Moreover, we are happy that we developed a product in one and a half months and still met the international standards. In case we had failed, this project could have caused huge losses, but we risked it and were able to succeed," said Muditha Wijayakulathilake, Marketing Manager for Solex Engineering Enterprise.

Solex's gully sucker development has been recognized by water and sanitation experts and the company has received further orders from international NGOs such as UNICEF, International Federation of Red Cross, Canadian Task Force for tsunami relief work, Maltaser of Germany and Solidarite' of France.

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