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In response to water scarcity in Sri Lanka, the government is implementing strategies such as rainwater harvesting, efficient irrigation, wastewater treatment and desalination. Initial efforts include the establishment of a desalination plant in Jaffna, with additional plans for the dry zones (DZ). The study aims to comprehensively identify the barriers to establishing desalination plants in the DZ and provide recommendations to mitigate these barriers. Additionally, this research provides valuable insights aimed at minimizing barriers to the construction of future desalination plants within Sri Lanka.

The study used qualitative methods, using an expert survey to identify current and future barriers, along with strategies for overcoming them. The collected data were analysed using the template analysis technique.

Regarding desalination plant establishment, various barriers such as high capital costs, high energy expenses, brine discharge, pollution, emissions, technical challenges, health concerns and waste disposal have been identified. However, specific strategies exist to address and mitigate each of these obstacles.

The study offers recommendations to environmental experts and government on expediting the approval procedures for desalination plants in Sri Lanka’s DZ. Adapted to Sri Lanka’s specific challenges, it highlights strategies and barriers essential for upcoming desalination projects. Furthermore, it emphasizes the financial advantages such as increased production and job creation resulting from establishing desalination facilities.

Through this study, promoting sustainable practices and fostering community involvement, it aims to enhance livelihoods, accelerate economic development and improve overall well-being through reliable access to water. Additionally, the study aims to enhance understanding of the importance of desalination in alleviating water scarcity, promoting community engagement and ultimately facilitating improved living conditions, health outcomes and economic opportunities in Sri Lanka’s DZs.

This study provides crucial direction for decision-makers by highlighting the main barriers to the establishment of desalination plants in Sri Lanka and outlining practical solutions. Implementing these strategies helps meet the region’s increasing water demands, advance sustainable water management, improve the standard of living for nearby communities and promote the socioeconomic development of desalination plants in Sri Lanka’s DZ.

Facilities management (FM), which is crucial for the operation and sustainability of buildings and infrastructure across the world, covers a wide range of competencies that may vary across regions. Focusing on Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, this study aims to reveal and compare the importance and current competency levels of FM competencies in these regions, based on which appropriate education and training can be formulated to enhance the growth of their FM sectors.

After an extensive literature review, 12 FM competency attributes (CAs) were identified. A questionnaire survey in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong solicited the industry practitioners’ perceived importance and current levels of the CAs. The survey responses, 126 from Sri Lanka and 148 from Hong Kong, were analysed by a modified Importance-Competency Analysis matrix, followed using the Mann−Whitney U test to identify any differences in the responses between the two regions.

Between Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, significant differences were found to exist in the importance and current competency levels of over half of the CAs. Among the CAs requiring priority attention, “operation and maintenance” and “leadership” are the top two in Sri Lanka while the top two in Hong Kong are “technology” and “leadership”.

This study yielded insightful results on the importance of FM competencies and the current competency levels in a developing region and a developed region, which are useful for the development of FM education and research.

Compared to low-rise and mid-rise buildings, commercial high-rise buildings have severe maintenance management deficiencies due to the complex nature of the structure and building services incorporated. Previous studies have shown that implementing lean in maintenance is a recognised prominent strategy to enhance maintenance performance. Thus, this study aims to investigate how lean maintenance can be applied to improve maintenance management in commercial high-rise buildings in Sri Lanka.

This study adopted a case study method. Three commercial high-rise buildings were selected to conduct the empirical study. An expert survey is also conducted to validate the findings.

The findings of the study revealed that out of the eight cardinal types of lean maintenance waste, six are rooted in the selected cases: (i) excessive preventive maintenance, (ii) waiting (maintenance resources, tools, procuring of additional supplies and documentation and permits), (iii) transportation due to centralised maintenance, (iv) poor inventory management, (v) poor information handling and (vi) poor utilisation of labour. Then the study revealed strategies to eradicate identified lean maintenance wastes.

The findings of this study can be used to guide maintenance practitioners in implementing lean maintenance in Sri Lankan commercial high-rise buildings. Furthermore, the proposed strategies can be directly applied to mitigate identified maintenance wastes.

This paper provides information on how high-rise commercial buildings in Sri Lanka can enhance their maintenance management by mitigating lean maintenance wastes.