St. George’s Grenada, 7 December 2021

 

In competing with the most beautiful hot spots on the globe, Grenada’s hotels are to impress with lush gardens, grand swimming pools and flawlessly clean rooms and facilities. All this requires water – lots of water.

 

Due to climate change and rising demand, fresh water becomes an increasingly limited resource on the island – especially in the dry season. Treated water comes at a cost: To reach the hotel belt in the South, the water is brought from the mountains through long pipes and pumps and many times reservoirs are empty.

 

The water consumption on domestic, governmental, tourism and commercial level is very high: The per capita domestic consumption in Grenada is almost double the domestic water consumption in middle Europe; But there are many technical and operational solutions that are readily available.

 

On the 7th December 2021, the Government of Grenada honored the first two hotels as “Water Efficiency Champions” for water conservation within the Challenge Fund for Tourism. The ceremony was part of the Climate-Resilient Water Sector in Grenada (G-CREWS) Project.

 

The G-CREWS project is jointly financed by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) under its International Climate Initiative (IKI), and the Government of Grenada.

 

Within the project, the Grenada Development Bank (GDB) is responsible for the Challenge Fund – Component 2.1 which aims to build climate resilient water users within the agriculture and tourism sectors.

 

Under the Challenge Fund for Tourism, the bank reimburses 80% of grant financing to hotels and guesthouse owners that are willing to invest in rainwater harvesting systems, greywater recycling systems or bathroom retrofitting that include water efficient faucets, showerheads, or toilet flushing.

 

Being the first is always the hardest and that is why the two hotels that took the lead received special recognition for their water championship: 

 

Rainbow Inn, a beautiful 15-room hotel on the East Coast in Grenville, St Andrew started its operation in 1970 by Dr. Dessima Williams, who – according to her own words – at that time – “was all but ridiculed for opening a hotel in the bush”. She started the project on principles of respect for nature, very much like our water partnership today. In fact, it is clear that global tourism is moving towards sustainability. The owner has used the Challenge Fund as an opportunity to retrofit 12 bathrooms with water-saving faucets, toilets, and showerheads. This will lead to about 68,850 gallons of water saved per year. This is more than 5 times, the average consumption of a Grenadian citizen per year.

 

For the Calabash Luxury Boutique Hotel – like for many hotels in the South – access to water becomes an increasing challenge – especially in the dry season. With its new rainwater harvesting system and the retrofitting of the existing concrete reservoir, this hotel can now store up to 50,000 gallons of water in total. This translates to daily water savings of approximately 4200 gallons through storage alone. This corresponds with the average daily water consumption of 120 citizens in Grenada.

 

Both, Rainbow Inn and Calabash Luxury Boutique Hotel, have recognized the advantages of investing in water efficiency, not just to be recognized as a sustainable operator, but also in regard to self-sufficiency on water in times of water shortage and the long-term economic costs savings. Both hotels have expressed their intention to continue retrofitting and system integration under the Challenge fund in a second set of investments.

 

Other hotels are already following and plan to or have already started to undertake installations of water saving devices and rainwater harvesting systems to benefit from incentives of the Challenge Fund.

 

So far, 21 hotels in Grenada have been audited on their water consumption. Should all the measures proposed for water conversation be realized a total of 9,680,400 gallons would be saved annually, which corresponds to one-eighth of the overall water consumption of the hotel industry in Grenada.

 

Over 6 years, the Government of Grenada, the Grenada Development Bank and the National Water and Sewerage Authority (NAWASA) in partnership with the German Development Corporation (GIZ) implement the G-CREWS five components. For more information on the Challenge Fund for Tourism, visit this page to view the factsheet.