One of the major sustainability issues in Morocco is the scarcity of fresh water.
In partnership with the Morocco National Tourist Office and the Marrakech Hotels Association, we developed a project aimed at reducing water consumption in Moroccan hotels, 'Every Drop Counts'.
Using the water conservation guidelines from our Greener Accommodations toolkit we developed a special French water saving version. The pack encourages hotels to implement simple water savings measures and to monitor reduced consumption.
The project focussed on working with hotels and riads in Marrakesh and Essaouira in 2009, and the project was extended to Agadir in 2010, where we worked with a further 50 properties.
We also partnered with the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) to deliver a series of sustainability roadshows in popular tourist destinations, focusing on best practice that hoteliers can easily implement.
Roadshows were held in Fez, Marrakech and Rabat in Morocco, as well as in Hurghada, Sharm el Sheik, Luxor in Egypt and Malta.
Every month, properties involved in the project saved enough water to fill an olympic sized swimming pool, which is equivalent to the amount of water a local family of six would use over 30 years! One year’s worth of savings is equivalent to the annual water consumption of a village of 2000 inhabitants.
Mustapha and his colleagues, at Tikida Garden Hotel in Marrakesh, are taking action to save water following the shortages they’ve experienced in recent years. Mustapha is transferring the water saving skills he’s learnt at work to his personal life, and can now wash his car with just one bottle of water!