Delhi's five-star hotels asked to cut down water consumption

Govt asks 35 five-star hotels to cut consumption, set up waste water treatment units

With water crisis during peak summer months looming large, Delhi government has asked 35 five-star hotels to take immediate steps to cut down their consumption and directed them to set up waste water treatment plants.

Identifying the five-star hotels as major guzzlers of water, the government has directed them to take a number of "concrete steps" by June to conserve water and install waste water treatment plants by September.

"We have asked 35 five-star hotels to file affidavit informing us about measures they are taking to cut consumption of water. They have been told to set up waste water treatment plants for recycling of waste water by September," a senior official of the environment department said.

The officials said the five-star hotels in Delhi consume around 14 million litres of water daily and generate nearly 10 million litres of sewage everyday.

They said punitive action will follow in case of non-compliance of the directive.

When asked about the government directive, an official in the Taj Palace Hotel said a number of steps are being taken to ensure water conservation.

The current average demand of potable water in Delhi is around 1,100 mgd (million gallons per day) and currently Delhi Jal Board supplies around 800 mgd water across the city after treating raw water in its treatment plants.

The demand is projected to touch around 1,400 mgd by end of the 12th Five-Year Plan in 2017. Delhi relies heavily on neighbouring states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for the supply of raw water.

Large parts of the city witnessed severe water shortage last summer and people even resorted to violent protests in many localities demanding water.

The hotels have been told to take steps like setting up of rain water harvesting facilities, solar water heating systems and put in place a waste management system modelled on the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle by the end of June.

The officials said some of the hotels have already set up waste water treatment plants. The hotels were told to use the treated water for horticulture purpose, flushing of toilets and in their air conditioning and fire fighting systems.

They said the hotels have also been asked to set up a waste management system under which they will require to install composting of waste and bio-gas production facility.

"The hotels can follow best practices adopted by various European hotels to cut water consumption. They may initiate small little steps like installation of water softener to reduce water use for laundry," said an official.

The directive to the hotels have been issued as part of government's water conservation policy.

"The city is facing water shortage. Delhi has to depend a lot on Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for supply of raw water. The groundwater level is also depleting rapidly. So we will have to take concrete measures to conserve water," the officials said.

The hotels have also been told to examine cutting consumption of power.