Tourism developments should not place a burden on existing water supply and the Water Authority of Fiji (WAF) is in discussions with tourism organisations to find ways where hotel and resort developers can help finance new water sources and supply neighbouring villages.
WAF chief executive officer Dr Amit Chanan said the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association and Tourism Fiji were part of discussions on the Water Strategy 2050 that was held recently.
“So our intention is that the infrastructure we build does cater for tourism because the reality is tourism is key to our economy,” Dr Chanan said.
“And in any given year, we have about the same number of people visiting Fiji as tourists as the population. So basic infrastructure like water has to cater for those.
“Certainly, in terms of our infrastructure for Water Strategy 2050, we are catering for that.
“Some of the models that came from that and the ideas were to look at integrated development, so if there’s a hotel development being proposed, we look at coming up with a financial model where we can work on water infrastructure together.
“So there is a whole area between Nadi and Suva along the coast where there is potential for additional tourism development and we don’t necessarily have enough treated water supply at the moment in those areas.
“There is an opportunity for us to work with the tourism proponents to identify water sources, to put in place plants that not only meet the needs of the tourism development, but also supply the neighbouring villages as well.”
