WATER RATIONING MAY AFFECT TOURIST RESORTS TOO
Information was received from Mauritius that the ongoing water shortage will extend right across the peak holiday season over Christmas and New Year into January 2012, with periodic rationing now a problem for not just the tourist sector but the Mauritian population at large. Sources on the island claim that annual rainfall has progressively reduced in recent years, keeping, similar to the Seychelles, the reservoirs far from their full capacity and subsequently having to reduce the supply of piped water to many parts of the island.
It is understood that tourist resorts are given priority in deliveries of piped water and as and where necessary supplies by bowser trucks but this fall out of the ongoing climate change is likely to not just persist but worsen in coming years, necessitating additional investments in tapping into water resources or else going into large scale desalination plants.
The Seychelles, in comparison, have installed substantial de-salination capacity in the recent past to produce potable water from sea water, but of course at a substantially higher cost per unit than harvested rain water. Watch this space.
