4.6.1 Waste Management
Being a small island, it is imperative that an effective waste management system is put in place to ensure the safe and efficient disposal of solid, liquid and sewage waste (Cant 1996, Rees et al. 2000). An effective waste management system will prevent pollution, unsightly landfills, prevent disease outbreaks, control the occurrence of pests and play a role in ensuring guests have a well-rounded, quality holiday experience. The management of waste needs to take into consideration the physical systems of the island and the socio-economic dynamics that are in place (Gourbesville and Thomassin 2000). In other words, Coral Cove Resort’s management of its waste needs to consider the physical setting of an island environment and the resort structure to be effective not only in terms of pollution control but also be economically feasible. Some of the considerations for the management are listed in Table 4-5.
Unfortunately, there is no explicit recycling or waste reduction schemes on Pulau Segayang that includes the involvement of the staff and guests that could complement the current system of rubbish disposal, or to manage the future rise in rubbish generation. Though the management did try to implement recycling the individual used plastic cups when there were 120 students staying on the island, the recycling endeavour was neither aggressively promoted nor closely monitored. On a regular basis, however, there is little in the way of educating guests to recycle their plastic waste.
Table 4-5: Developing Pulau Segayang’s Waste Management System
Considerations for Waste Management Systems
Physical Environment (Island environment &
coastal processes)
• Island size
• Land usage (planning for future land use)
• Coastal-land interactions
• Level of water table
• Soil profile
• Distance away from resort accommodation and activities
• Distance of landfill from water supply and source
• Level of assimilation and dispersion capabilities of natural environment (specifically ocean currents)
Socio-Economic Dynamics
(Management, staff and guests)
• Management initiatives in waste management and pollution control
• Explicitly stated recycling initiatives
• Transportation costs to carry recycled materials back to mainland
• Participation of recycling amongst staff and guests
• Level of awareness of waste disposal methods and management amongst local staff and guests
• Level of tolerance amongst guests for pollution/waste management standards
4.6.2 Managing Financial Expenditure
The cost to employ contract workers to build the rooms, jetty and kelong during the initial construction phase was the largest cost incurred in the investment for the resort (per. comm., Ng, 08/09/06). It was estimated that between 20 – 30% of the total investment for the resort was lost through wastage and ‘creative accounting’. In this case, creative accounting refers to the inflation of costs, working hours and projected expenditure for supplies by contractors to elicit profit for personal gain, especially if the management were not aware of standard practices and market rates when they first started out. Today, the management is more conscious of standard market rates and procedures and have also developed better relationships with their contract staff. The resort has thus been able to reduce construction costs, manpower hours and unwarranted expenditure for subsequent developments. The longhouse, suites, lodges
and second kelong were all built within a much shorter time-frame, at a lower price and with better foresight.
One of the reasons for this undesirable experience could be the distance and isolation of the island from mainland and the investors. The owners and investors were not stationed at the island throughout the construction phase but rather made trips to and fro. The workers were left unsupervised and without a manager on the island to provide the bridge between the upper levels of the management and the contract workers, the opportunity to take advantage of the situation arose. This incident highlights some of the many problems associated with peripheral development and the many risks involved for private entrepreneurs (Boyd and Hall 2005, Ioannides and Petersen 2003). The change now is a more hands-on approach to oversee and supervise the construction process to ensure delivery of promised contracts and to develop increased interaction with contract staff.
Therefore, a high level of commitment is required by the management in seeing through the progression and evolution of a new tourism enterprise and to ensure the efficient management and operation of the resort. It would require the management involved to possess not only the software of staff management, financial accounting and product development, but also understand the technical intricacies such as kelong construction, freshwater management and supply costs for an overall and effective approach to resort management. This experience also highlights the many issues and problems with developing peripheral areas. Issues such as the lack of effective control and increased transportation cost due to distance from mass markets plus weak information flows which were experienced here have similarly been identified
elsewhere (Hall and Boyd 2005). Highlighting these issues then raises awareness not only for the current management but also for other tour operators.