Isle effort to
reduce water use
falls shortVisitors will be asked
to conserve water
via a leaflet distributed
to hotels on Oahu
Three weeks after the Honolulu Board of Water Supply's plea for a 10 percent reduction in water use, customers are not hitting the goal, and the utility is planning to increase its calls for voluntary conservation.
Use has averaged between 169 million and 171 million gallons a day in the three weeks since the agency called for voluntary reductions in outside water use. That is a decrease of 4 to 5 percent compared with the 178 million gallons a day average used in the week ending July 23.
Beginning next week, Oahu hotel guests will be asked to help conserve water via a leaflet being distributed to member hotels by the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association, according to the group's president, Murray Towill.
The one-page leaflet suggests that guests turn off the water while brushing teeth or shaving, take showers instead of baths and avoid using a toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket.
"One of the pieces of the (water conservation) puzzle is advising guests that just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you wouldn't use the same conservation measures you would at home," Towill said yesterday.
Hotels are among some of the Board of Water Supply's largest customers.
Within the next few weeks, the hotel association also plans to provide hotels with cards offering guests the option of not having clean linens and towels every day, Towill said. Both efforts are in cooperation with the agency and the state Water Commission.
The board is also asking hotel restaurants to serve water upon request and examine their water use practices, said Barry Usagawa, the board's principal executive of water resources.
On Aug. 2 the agency asked that all customers limit landscape watering to before 10 a.m. and after 6 p.m. on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays to "rest" wells that are low because of drought.
Beginning next week, the board will step up "irrigation patrols" that will respond to reports of watering outside the suggested hours, Usagawa said. Other voluntary conservation measures may be discussed at the board's monthly meeting at 2 p.m. Monday, he said.
The Water Commission will send letters next week to Oahu residents and businesses that are not Water Board customers, asking them to reduce water use by 10 percent, said Deputy Director Ernest Lau.
The board is planning a blessing of its pilot desalinization facility in Campbell Industrial Park at 11 a.m. Thursday.
The facility, which would process 20 gallons a minute, will be used to test filters and systems that might be used in a 5 million-gallons-a-day plant the board expects to build next year.
Report abuse
The Board of Water Supply encourages Oahu residents to report water waste by calling 748-5041.
