Five-star hotels use up to 462 litres of water per guest per night while four-star venues consume more than 290, a study has revealed.
While offices and manufacturing companies use about 25 litres of water per employee a day, the daily consumption shoots up to 46 litres where showers are onsite.
These figures are published in a paper titled Water Consumption Benchmarks – A Step Towards Reduced Consumption, which forms part of the Malta Business Bureau’s EU LIFE+ Investing in Water Project.
The project, which is EU-funded, aims at identifying water-saving solutions for businesses and hotels.
The paper shows that service water – used in toilets, showers and wash hand basins – accounts for between 38 and 86 per cent of hotels’ total water consumption and between five per cent and 98 per cent for businesses.
Lack of standards means that water usage varies. Flow rates in showers vary from four to 12 litres per minute and flushing cistern rates range from six to 15 litres.
These figures are based on 38 audits in 20 hotels, from three to five-star, and 18 businesses with 30 to 950 employees.
The first batch of audits ended this month and the second will take place between November until December 2013, when the project will also offer ongoing consultation through individual meetings and technical group workshops.
Project manager Geoffrey Saliba said these were the most detailed sets of water consumption benchmarks for professions published so far: “Businesses and hotels can use these benchmarks to identify higher than usual consumption and guide their decisions to start saving water.”
Apart from revealing consumption patterns, the audits indicated areas where a decrease could be achieved, he said.
The paper also published a recommended standard flow rate of seven litres per minute for shower flows, five per minute for wash-hand basin flows and a toilet flushing cistern volume of six litres.
Project expert and hydrologist Marco Cremona said: “The benchmarks help enterprises identify excessive consumption and act to correct it.
“By going a step further and adopting the recommended standard flow rates and flushing cistern volumes, many enterprises could easily save 10 per or more of their current water consumption.”
The project is managed by the Malta Business Bureau and supported by the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association. Launched in October 2011, it will run until March 2014 and is the first national initiative of this scale addressing the sustainable use of water in Malta.
The paper is available at www.investinginwater.org.