How Water Saves Jobs
Top quality drinking water from the tap is a gift – many travelers are often only reminded of that when going on vacation. During the transfer to the hotel one passes heavily loaded water carriers, in some destinations special signs warn of consuming tap water. And yet, we naturally refresh ourselves in huge pools, are delighted by the lush greenery, exotic blossoms and a chilled carafe of drinking water on the table.
There is a lot of work behind the environmental relaxation. How are travelers’ batteries recharged without exhausting natural resources? Here, we explain, how workplaces in the hotel business depend on water and how water saves jobs!
Wells, Reservoir and Recycling in Thailand
At the sustainable Diving Resort Zeavola in Thailand, there wouldn’t be a dream hotel without water. The location on the Phi Phi Islands already bounds to a cautious dealing with nature. The resort’s 157 employees collect all plastic bottles and return them on the mainland, which is an important measurement for the protection of water.
At least four full-time jobs at the resort are directly connected to water. Strict control and maintenance of the water treatment plant, which operates eight to 20 hours and produces 3.000 to 8.000 liter drinking water per hour through reverse osmosis.
If it dropped out, Zeavola could receive its water from a water storage for five days before the resort needed to close. Next to four deep wells, also drinking water pipelines for guests and employees need to be carefully looked after at a daily basis. The personnel in kitchen, bar and laundry monitors conscientiously all consumption protocols, because in dry season, the plant roots sometimes search their way to the pipes and cause some serious damages.
Hot Tubs filled with mountain spring water in Austria
At the beginning of the millennium, the host family Langegger of „Bachgut –The resort at the mountain“ in the Austrian city Saalbach-Hinterglemm, thought carefully about how they could provide their self -catering huts, chalets and the head office
sustainably with fresh drinking water. As the purest mineral-rich water from the mountains was found in the wells directly on the doorstep, it seemed reasonable to build pressure resistant water pipes to the resort and to even produce electric energy with the help of their own water power plant.
No sooner said than done: Since 2010 the Bachgut is energy self-sufficient and has two steel water tanks with 30.000 liter crystal clear water each. One employee is occupied with the topic of water each day to review the filling levels of the water tanks, check the operation of the water power plant, clean the elevated tanks regularly and examine them regarding damages.
Guests get multiple advantages from the ambitious water treatment: They enjoy eco-friendly bathing pleasure in the hot pots and the biobath pond and like to take the delicious spring water in the offered glas bottles home as a souvenir in the summer.
Rainwater Lakes in India
Without water, guests would not even get to the Coconut Lagoon in the legendary backwaters of the back country of the Indian Kerala. Here, small water canals function as connection points and wooden boats as taxis. Hereby, the hotel ensures the income for two water chauffeurs.
Wastewater treated in a reverse osmosis plant and collected rainwater secures all of the hotel’s water supply whilst an in-house engineering team supervises the functionality of this conservation process at all times. During the monsoon from June until October, storages are created, whose dimensions are beyond imagination – 10 million liters rain water are harvested. No tanks, rather gigantic lakes enable the irrigation of the garden area and provide water for the whole guests sector – even during the dry period.
A hotel that works hard for a wild- growing vegetation of its gardens during the whole year needs many helping hands or support on four legs: At Coconut Lagoon, the endangered Vechoor dwarf cattle become living mowers – they too owe a lot to water.
