Golf courses under scrutiny as Tenerife’s water emergency drags on

Von Marlis Zoschke

Tenerife has always suffered from a shortage of water. Whenever it rained, the finca owners would do a little dance of joy. For one day at least, the laborious task of watering the bananas and tomatoes was taken care of. But everyone knew that water was in short supply everywhere.

How could the Island Council have been so oblivious as to believe the (alleged) promises of investors who painted a rosy picture of everything? „If there are golf courses, far more high-spending tourists will come,“ and so on: does a volcanic island really need such a superfluous luxury? Has anyone ever bothered to work out how much water a golf course requires?

Every year, 50,000 golfers visit Tenerife. And they are spread across nine golf courses. Now, everyone can work out for themselves how many players are teeming about on the courses over the course of 365 days. However, water consumption is unlikely to be any lower even with fewer players.

Tenerife’s golf courses require hundreds of thousands of litres of water

Experience shows that each hole requires 100,000 litres of water per year. As golf can be played here all year round, consumption could even be higher. There are no trees here to keep out the intense heat and provide shade, as there are in Europe. The scorching heat further dries out the ground and, consequently, the golf fairways.

And now it’s the tourists‘ turn again: they’re all expected to foot the bill for the few who are having a good time. The island’s president really does have a sunny disposition. What on earth is she hoping to achieve with these one-day visitors from the ‚luxury cruise ships‘ (more on this here)?

A tourist tax as a possible partial solution

It is right that all visitors should pay a visitor’s tax, bed tax, environmental levy or whatever else it may be called. But please, Madam President, not in this way.

The water crisis affects us all. Local people, too, should use water sparingly as far as possible. After all, without water, there is no life.