Zanzibar: Tourists using more water than local people

Large tourist resorts in Zanzibar are consuming more than 300 per cent more water per person per day than local people, creating chronic shortages.

According to a new report from the UK-based charity Tourism Concern, the situation in Zanzibar and The Gambia, is typical of the problems faced by many poor African people living near large tourist resorts.

The report accuses large international hotel chains of “unsustainable appropriation” of water supplies as well as pollution of water supplies through poorly regulated tourism.

The consequences of this chronic water depletion “are threatening the environment, and undermining living standards, livelihoods and development opportunities of impoverished local communities,” the report says.

Consumption
Tourism Concern says that one of the worst examples of the gap between the use of water by tourists and local people is in the villages of Kiswengwa and Nungwi in Zanzibar where tourists were using 16 times more fresh water per head each day than locals.

Overall, across Zanzibar, Tourism Concern said that luxury hotels consume up to 3,195 litres of water per room per day while average household consumption was 93.2 litres of water per day.

It said that tension over the issue had become so acute that guards were patrolling hotel pipelines “to prevent vandalism by angry locals.”

The report adds that a recent power cut led to a cholera outbreak in which at least four villagers died after consuming well water thought to have become contaminated with sewage from nearby hotels.

“Government policies tend to favour international hotels and tour operators over local entrepreneurs. This is causing conflict and resentment, and threatening the sustainability of the tourism sector itself,” the report notes.

Rachel Noble, Head of Policy and Research at Tourism Concern said: “The benefits of tourism-related jobs and economic growth are grossly undermined where governments fail to protect water rights and the environment from the impacts of poorly planned tourism development.”

She said that threats to water resources in tourist destinations are complex and challenging, and demand a co-ordinated response to effectively address them.

By: Bruce Amp