Uptake of sustainable water management practices: Evidence from hotels in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Water is scarce, and hotels use large quantities of it for their activities. The efficient water management practices in hotels are therefore essential to achieving their sustainability in the future. The aim of this study was to examine the uptake of sustainable water practices by hotels in Nakuru County. Nakuru is a tourism destination site due to natural features such as Lake Nakuru, Elementaita, and Naivasha. The county continues to experience widespread environmental degradation due to economic activities, with no exception of hospitality establishments. The hospitality industry is believed to contribute to the degradation of the environment due to high consumption of natural resources and waste production. The study was anchored on the extended metabolism model of the city. The research adopted a descriptive cross-sectional research design that involved both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in generating rich information to help fully explore the objective of the study. The target population consisted of 259 hotels registered within the categories of medium, large, and very large hotels, out of which a sample of 204 hotels was selected using the stratified random sampling method, and 204 hotels were sampled and done. Purposive sampling was used to sample 13 government and private officials associated with the hotel industry who participated in the study. Quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from respondents using survey questionnaires and interviews, respectively. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data was analyzed using NVivo software, and data was categorized into themes and presented in the form of narratives. Findings show that hotels reported high uptake of 91.2% on the policy on water conservation, 74.0% on rainwater harvesting and storage water policies, 72.1% on rainwater harvesting gutters and storage installed, and 72.5% on retrofitted water-saving measures. However, the findings of the study revealed low uptake: 9.8% on budget for supporting sound water management practices and 26.0% on capacity building for staff on sound water management practices policy. Emerging themes from qualitative data indicated that rainwater harvesting and storage is a sustainable practice that has been adopted by a majority of hotels in Nakuru. It is concluded that hotels in Nakuru are adopting sustainable water management practices. However, emphasis needs to be placed on policies to enhance the adoption of the practices, thus minimizing water waste through wastewater generated by hotels, hence promoting the sustainability of hotels. Hotel management should budget for and educate staff on sustainable water management practices to increase their adoption.