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On September 11, 2001, Caribbean tourism faced one of its harshest challenges, with the attacks on New York and Washington, DC. For decades, however, its single most dominant stress has been climate change and climate variability. Faced with the renewed challenge of climate change, the industry has struck a partnership with ministries of tourism to develop a regional framework for sustainable tourism development, says Mercedes Silva, a sustainable tourism specialist with the Caribbean Tourism Organisation. One of the components of this regional framework has to do with management of natural resources. Industry officials say water tops the list of issues that could impact on tourism, due to climate change. According to Peter Springer, a development consultant, "the relationships between the tourism industry and looming environmental challenges is intimate and the most immediate one is water". "Tourism is by nature a heavy user of water," says Springer. "The future of Caribbean tourism is therefore closely linked to the region's ability to meet its fresh water requirements." He says it is vital that Caribbean islands put order in their water resources management arrangements, so that tourism can be made sustainable overtime. While there may be problems everywhere, the situation is relatively uneven. The countries of the Caribbean are diverse and not all have the same level of water resources. In the case of Dominica, for example, there seems to be an abundance of water while Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and the Bahamas are regarded as water-stressed islands. But even the water rich islands need to be concerned, says Patricia Aquine, programme director at the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI). "Indeed in both instances, we are looking at the fundamentals of water resources management," says Aquine. "In the water stressed islands, we should be concerned about how competing economic and social interests are served. Do we allocate more to golf course maintenance as a tourism drawer, or to agriculture? And for the water rich ones, how do we best manage the resources so that the needs of the tourism sector are met, both in terms of quality and quantity?" The industry is keeping a keen eye on such issues as resource allocation, says Silva. "The sector is aware of the problems facing the management of scarce resources such as fresh water, energy and even the consequences of inadequate waste management. Specifically in the area of fresh water, the industry is aware of the need to change the consumption pattern of fresh water." Even though the world has always had to cope with climate change, there are signs that these variations are becoming more pronounced and need to be addressed, says Jan Vermeiren, head of the sustainable development unit at the Organisation American States. "With tourism employing great numbers in most countries of the Caribbean; with the industry generating more dollars now than ever before; with the industry's water demand vastly outstripping domestic usage in a number of instances, there is no way tourism can consider itself immune from the worst effect of fresh water depletion as a result of climate change and variability, he says. Water stress in many Caribbean countries has reached crisis proportions, notes Vermeiren. "The irony is that many of the countries that are experiencing water stress are countries that are very heavily dependent on the tourism industry." The Caribbean dialogue on water and climate change, hosted by CEHI in collaboration with the OAS, and the ensuing consultation with Pacific Island states addressed many of these issues. The dialogue emerged out preparation for the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, in March 2003. This article is based on a transcription of Island Beat Radio.
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