diff --git a/serverless.yaml b/serverless.yaml
index 71a128bc..05e3bd6b 100644
--- a/serverless.yaml
+++ b/serverless.yaml
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ custom:
   useHapiValidator: ${opt:useHapiValidator, 'false'}
   enableMultiTenancy: ${opt:enableMultiTenancy, 'false'}
   logLevel: ${opt:logLevel, 'error'}
+  enableESHardDelete: ${opt:enableESHardDelete, 'false'}
   patientCompartmentFileV3: 'patientCompartmentSearchParams.3.0.2.json'
   patientCompartmentFileV4: 'patientCompartmentSearchParams.4.0.1.json'
   bundle:
@@ -116,6 +117,8 @@ functions:
     description: 'Write DDB changes from `resource` table to ElasticSearch service'
     role: DdbToEsLambdaRole
     handler: ddbToEsLambda/index.handler
+    environment:
+      ENABLE_ES_HARD_DELETE: ${self:custom.enableESHardDelete}
     events:
       - stream:
           type: dynamodb