the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

environmental pollution throughout the world. As such, the industry is in the
ignominious position of contributing directly to its potential downfall over the long
term in certain regions (Hunter and Green, 1995).
One of the most common consequences of rapid tourism development is the
overload on local sewage treatment and disposal infrastructure. Water pollution from
untreated or partially treated sewage effluent can have severe implications for local
aquatic life and also for the health of tourists and locals who use the contaminated
waters for drinking, bathing and to process food. Sewage pollution can affect the
ecological balance of an area, often resulting in a marked decline in species
diversity, by reducing dissolved oxygen in water and sediments, by smothering sea,
lake and river beds and by promoting the accelerated eutrophication (nutrient
enrichment) of water bodies (Hunter and Green, 1995).
It is generally very difficult to disaggregate water pollution (indeed, any form of
pollution) resulting from tourism from other sources within a given area. However,
there are numerous examples where tourism makes a significant contribution to
local total pollution loads, sometimes to the apparent detriment of the tourism
industry. Becheri (1991), for example, reflects upon the effect of algal blooms,
resulting from accelerated eutrophication, on the Italian beach resort of Rimini, on
the Adriatic coast, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Even though the area was
already suffering from environmental problems associated with over development,
the blooms acted as a catalyst on these negative impacts and tourist booking fell by
over 25 per cent in 1989 compared to the previous year. An accelerated decline also
occurred in many other areas of the mid- and northern Adriatic coast (Bywater,
1991). Elsewhere, sewage related tourism problems are also documented. For
example, localised marine pollution has been implicated in the degradation of
mangrove seagrass and coral reef ecosystems in Fiji (Pattullo, 1996), and similar
effects have been observed in Jamaica, where sewage effluent has contributed to
the growth of seaweeds damaging the attractiveness of beaches and killing coral
reefs which protect the shorelines from erosion (Henry, 1988; Pattullo, 1996).
Sewage pollution is recognised as a significantly destructive impact of mass tourism
in areas as diverse as Cyprus (Andronikou, 1987), the Norfolk Broads of England
(Owens and Owens, 1991), the lakes of the Shinshuu mountain region of Honshu
Island in Japan (Watanabe, 1990) and the mountain streams of the French
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