Development of hotel, tourism industries and costs to local communities

l by Shanie

"In their clay walled tenements,
they wait for bread,
for their men to come back
from the belly of the earth
from their underground hells.......
This, the unbreakable chain,
the diurnal course for them,
waiting for bread.
And others on the upper floors of life,
they too are waiting,
in their ODC seats,
for the grand show to start."" - Shelton Amarasuriya
(in Channels I – July 2009)

(14th July, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Guardian (UK) in an article published this week says that the UK charity Tourism Concern is to release next week a report on the findings of a study on the effect of tourism on five selected areas in developing countries of Asia and Africa. The five areas were Gambia, Bali in Indonesia, the islands of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania, Goa and Kerala in India. They are all popular tourist destinations, not unlike Sri Lanka. The study finds that hotel guests in these countries have been shown to use over 3,000 litres of fresh water a day, against 93 litres used by locals. This huge inequality in the use of a scarce resource is causing local conflict, exacerbating poverty and helping to spread disease.

The Tourism Concerns report says that ‘while hotels may have the money and resources to ensure their guests enjoy several showers a day, swimming pools, a round of golf, and lush landscaped gardens, neighbouring households, small businesses and agricultural producers’ regularly endure severe water scarcity. Not only do local residents face shortages of drinking water but the huge consumption of water by the hotels has lowered the water table resulting in the contamination of ground water. Wells in the neighbouring villages have become saline and making the water unfit for human consumption. In Sri Lanka too, we have a proliferation of hotels and resorts coming up. In our anxiety to earn foreign exchange, we must not overlook the environmental impact and the effect it has on the life and livelihoods of the local communities. Tourism Concern’s research and findings are equally applicable to Sri Lanka and our authorities cannot afford to ignore them.

In Zanzibar, for instance, following falling water tables and acute water shortages, angry locals demonstrated and decided to the destroy the water system of the hotels. Following these sabotage attempts, hotels have had to employ security guards to protect the water pipes leading into the walled hotel complexes. In 2010, an outbreak of cholera in the resort village of Jambiani which killed three locals, was blamed, in part, on sewage from hotels contaminating ground water.

No compromise on basic right to water

Tourism Concern’s report is to be released on Monday in Britain’s House of Parliament. John Robertson MP, secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on water and sanitation in developing countries which is sponsoring this release, said: "It must be made clear that 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation and that almost 2,000 children a day die from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation, so it is vital that this is put right for the future. The governmentannouncement of plans to double its targets on water and sanitation are one vital step. It is important then that Tourism Concern’s report identifies that the basic right to water and sanitation should not be compromised by tourism. Governments, working with industry, should do whatever they can to protect the right to water and sanitation of citizens as a priority." It is important for the authorities in Sri Lanka, not only the government and the tourism and hotel industry but all concerned citizens to address these issues of inequality and the rights of the local communities.

Our hydraulic civilisation

These issues of proper and equal water management have concerned our rulers from ancient times. Ours has been a hydraulic civilization. The ancient Kings of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods built an extensive network of tanks and canals that sustained the population. Some of these ancient works were feats of engineering marvel. Parakramabahu the Great is credited having made the comment that not a single drop of water received from rain should be allowed to escape into the sea without being utilized for human benefit. It is because of these great rulers that we became an agricultural community with farming as the main livelihood of the people. The great hydraulic civilization was centred around the village which in turn was built around the tanks and canals. Let not some unthinking bureaucrat destroy our history, our great civilization, our agricultural heritage by planting hotels and airports on land which produces food for our people.

Tourist entering the country from Colombo based airport

New Airports for tourists

In order to promote tourism in Sri Lanka, the government has plans to open new airports in Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. It is understood that in both places, it is valuable agricultural land that has been identified as the site for the airport. In Kandy, it appears that the selected site is that of the Agricultural School at Kundasale and in Nuwara Eliya, it is part of Pedro Estate, one of the best tea producing estates in the country. While the authorities will point out that no finality has been reached as to the selection of the site, it is necessary that as citizens we raise our concerns now. The development of tourism is necessary for a country like Sri Lanka, both because we have a rich variety of natural resources to offer the tourist and also because we need the exchange earnings from the industry. But the rights of the people and their means of sustenance must not be compromised. Airports the world over, in any case, are not sited in areas of heavy urban concentration. There will be noise pollution in populated areas. All concerned parties – the industry, the government, the affected local communities, the environmental conservation groups, etc – must participate on an equal footing in decision making. This columnist remembers the controversy that arose when the Kandalama Hotel was to be constructed. All the concerned groups, including the local community participated as equals in discussions and decisions were arrived at largely by consensus. There was no Big Brother telling all the others: ‘This is what I have decided. You can take it or leave it.’ Today, part of the success of the Kandalama Hotel Project is because the local community participates in a variety of ways in it. The project has provided sustainable development, economic, social, cultural, to the village, minimizing the negative impact of the industry.

People’s Participation Vital

It is in that spirit that decisions should be made. It is not for politico bureaucrats to decree that an airport should be built at a particular site, without any consultation with the people who are going to be affected on the ground. The same goes for people being evicted from their homes so that the city can be beautified. There are many in Colombo who express satisfaction that the city is being beautified by getting rid of ugly tenements, getting rid of the poor sub-class who live in make-shift housing. etc. Not a thought is given to the displaced families who are deprived of homes they have lived in and who are being moved to an entirely strange environment. Some consultation and some discussion on the best course of action that will satisfy all concerned would perhaps have taken longer to complete but would have proved a success from every angle. Just as the re-settlement of displaced Tamils is being mishandled, the eviction of the urban poor is also leading to anger and frustration among the affected. President Rajapaksa has been a grass roots politician for over forty years. He understands the mind of the marginalized groups in the country. He understands that intimidation and violence against protesters is not the way to resolve issues. But the people who seem to be making decisions on re-settlement seem to be pushing him into an awkward corner.

In January 2001, President Rajapaksa, the Minister of Fisheries in the Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga Government, delivered an address (or it was delivered on his behalf) on the theme "Towards a National Policy on Involuntary Resettlement – A People Centred Perspective" at a workshop in Marawila. What he said on that occasion were words of wisdom which he should instill into the thinking of decision makers today: "A development project will have a smooth life cycle on the one side and be sustained over time on the other, only when the people feel they own it: and for them to feel it is their own, they would need to have participated organically in every stage of its life cycle through participatory processes that require time and patience. This is the lesson of recent development history.‘’