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ETHICAL TRAVELLER:WATER IS A human right. In July this year, the UN declared that “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights”. Not something most of us want to think about on holiday, really. However, with water so very central to tourism, and tourism so very central to world economies, the two are inextricably linked.

Indeed, our water footprint as tourists is something that we will be hearing more about as temperatures continue to rise around the world. Especially in those winter sun destinations we all crave. Here are some of the unfathomable facts: 1.1 billion people worldwide have no access to clean water; 1.4 million children die each year because of unsafe water; in parts of Asia and Africa women carry water weighing as much as your luggage on their heads ever day just for basic needs. And the hardest fact for holidaymakers to face is that this is often happening just a few kilometres away from a tourism resort with infinity pools sourced from precious ground water.