| || Fair tourism > Water |
Water is a precious resource. It is very scarce in many tourist destinations and should not be wasted mindlessly.
- Inquire about the water conditions in your destination and choose hotels, which adapt their water use to the environment. Spacious hotel complexes with park-like pastures that need constant watering have tremendous water consumption.
- Especially during the wet season, water is often even scarcer due to muddy water pipes and conduits as well as missing opportunities for water purification.
- Only take short showers when water is scarce. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth and report dripping taps. Refuse to have towels and bed linen changed every day in order to save water and chemicals.
- Golf players should be aware of the fact that golf courses need especially exhaustive watering and excessive fertilisation, which pollutes the soil and ground water.
- 3 out of 10 people worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water, and 4 billion people live in countries in which there is absolute water scarcity for at least one month every year.
- In 2018, already 2 billion people have lived in countries with absolute water scarcity. This shortage increases the risk of armed conflicts over this vital resource.
- Every year about 780.000 people are dying from contaminated water, lack of sanitary installations, and lack of hygiene.
- One room in a 5 star hotel in Goa consumes 1.785 liter water per day. For the local population, only 14 liters per person are available.
- A golf course in a tropical country such as Thailand needs every year as much water as 60,000 rural inhabitants. The water consumption is especially wasteful in luxury hotels and resorts.
- In order to keep tourism going, the Caribbean islands Antigua and Barbuda need to buy water from their neighbouring island Dominica. As 65% of the water is used by tourism, this over-exploitation of water resources leads to the decline of ground water levels and an intrusion of salt water. Additionally, inadequate sewage and waste disposal worsens the water quality even more.
