Puritas marks 30 years of environmental engineering leadership

Exterior of a treatment plant: A Puritas water and wastewater treatment plant, part of the company’s extensive network delivering sustainable purification solutions across Sri Lanka and the Maldives

Inside the plant: Inside a Puritas treatment facility – advanced filtration and processing systems engineered to meet domestic, industrial and municipal water purification needs 

• Transforming Sri Lanka’s water and wastewater infrastructure to safeguard health and environment

Puritas Ltd., a fully-owned subsidiary of Haycarb PLC and member of the Hayleys Group, recently marked 30 years of innovation in environmental engineering, with a renewed focus on scaling sustainable water and wastewater solutions across Sri Lanka and the region.

Established in 1995 to deliver locally developed solutions to environmental challenges, Puritas has emerged as a pioneer in Sri Lanka’s water and wastewater treatment sector, providing purification systems for retail, industrial, and municipal solutions.

Today, nearly 36% of Sri Lanka’s population faces water scarcity, with one in 10 households relying on untreated sources. Over the past three decades, Puritas has played a critical role in addressing this gap, purifying influent for safe domestic and industrial use and treating effluent to meet stringent environmental standards.

To date, the company has treated over 16 million litres of industrial wastewater, 24 million litres of domestic wastewater, and 20 million litres of raw water.

Puritas has built a reputation for end-to-end solutions – design and build followed up with operations and maintenance – offering clients peace of mind with ongoing system support and upgrades. By developing advanced technologies tailored to local conditions, it provides reliable, sustainable, high-performing solutions that meet evolving environmental needs.

Alongside major projects, a range of user-friendly solutions for homes and municipalities are offered: plug-and-play domestic sewage treatment plants and ‘Tap to Cup’ Hydrocove purifiers for instant drinking water. Puritas supplies, installs, and maintains complete systems, with flexible leasing options available.

“With our extensive project coverage across the country, we enable communities and industries to thrive, while protecting natural ecosystems for future generations. We thank our customers for their continued partnership and patronage and our teams for fostering a culture of innovation and commitment. We continue to champion greener, more sustainable solutions for our nation and for generations yet to come,” said Haycarb PLC Managing Director Rajitha Kariyawasan.

“Over the past three decades, Puritas has been driven by a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and accountability. It is the passion of our people and their commitment to social and environmental impact that has fuelled our innovations and sustained our success,” Puritas Ltd. Director Manura Wickramasinghe said.

Beyond business, ‘Puritas Sath Diyawara,’ Hayleys Group’s flagship social responsibility program launched in 2014, supports chronic kidney disease (CKD)-affected communities by providing over 200,000 litres of clean drinking water daily to 45,000+ people. The program integrates the expertise of the environmental engineering teams and the strength of Hayleys Group companies to support creating sustainable access to clean water across 20 villages in the North, North Centra, and Uva Provinces.

An extension of the Puritas Sath Diyawara program, the ‘Going Beyond’ initiative aims to address the broader socio-economic needs of these communities through supporting the education of schoolchildren through book and stationery donations and empowering women and youth by extending support for entrepreneurial initiatives.

Puritas also champions the ‘Behold the Turtle’ project of Haycarb Group, aimed at marine conservation through the protection of sea turtles at the Kumana National Park, in collaboration with the Wildlife Department of Sri Lanka. Since 2020, the project has completed five seasons, safeguarding turtle nesting sites by collecting 22,601 eggs, releasing 11,443 hatchlings of five endangered sea turtle species, and logging nearly 59,040 volunteer hours.

Puritas exemplifies a truly sustainable business within the Hayleys Group, aligning closely with the Group’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspirations set out in its Hayleys Lifecode. 

“We measure leadership by the positive change we create – for people, the planet, and our performance. Our locally rooted model has enabled us to deliver measurable impact while driving long-term growth,” Haycarb Deputy Managing Director Brahman Balaratnarajah said. “Looking ahead, we aim to deepen our impact by expanding into micro-level household solutions, fostering consumer responsibility and addressing emerging environmental trends to build a more sustainable future.”

Puritas is set to scale its solutions across the full water management value chain, with a focus on recycling, reuse, and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) technologies to enhance sustainability, operational efficiency, and customer value. As an industry leader creating lasting value through sustainable solutions, Puritas is also pursuing strategic acquisitions in treatment technologies, investing in talent, and strengthening its presence across key markets, while consolidating its footprint in the Maldives and exploring new regional opportunities.