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We caught up with him today as he exited a meeting with the BTB. Here's what he told us about the predicament his industry has been placed in by the water shortage.

Stuart Krohn, President, BTIA Placencia Chapter
"To talk about how people feel about the water situation really depends on how it personally affects you. So, if you are taking a shower in the morning and the water runs out in the middle of your shower you are not a happy camper. If it doesn't affect you that way personally it might not be on your mind even though I think most in the public sphere who are being urged to conserve water, some do, some don't and you still see some people washing cars, watering plants, some people haven't gotten it yet but they will get the sense once the water runs out, from the tourism perspective if you have a hotel or even a restaurant when you run out of water that is it game over you, there is no excuse that you can make to a guest at your hotel why you cannot flush your toilet or cannot take a bath that you may have paid 200, 300, 400, or 500 dollars a night to stay in that hotel so that is the thing that I can give you from the tourist perspective and as someone who lives there, yeah I'm not happy if I can't take my bath but at least I know enough to prepare and maybe fill up some pigtail buckets with water and I can always have my bucket bath. I can't tell a guest at my hotel to take a bucket bath. So, that has you know I think the hotels sector and the tourism sector really concerned about it, and I think what we're trying to do is to get BWS to really try to. Understand what it means to be in that predicament."

"We are in the hospitality industry if we do not treat our customers with respect we are out of business, that is the only thing we've got. We wish that attitude prevailed in the larger business community. That businesses would treat their customers with respect, the problem is exacerbated when as you know. There is a monopoly in water, there is no competition so it's either we go to BWS or nothing and so, you know, if we could try to get them to understand that, you know, we are people too. We are maybe 40 to 50% of the economy and so when you hurt us you are hurting the whole economy."

And Krohn got a special mention by the water company this morning for being the hotelier that alerted them to the problem in the first place. He explains that he didn't have much of a choice:

Stuart Krohn, President, BTIA Placencia Chapter
"Well to their credit the current project that BWS has already started to increase the capacity for the Peninsula. This includes huge storage at Seine Bight and large diameter pipes going all the way up the peninsula and that is happening as we speak; they are laying pipe in Maya Beach and they are constructing the Seine Bight water tank and I believe it includes a new pipeline under the lagoon. I am not sure, but I believe that what it is. So let's say a year from now, I would be very surprise if we still have this problem. So the plan for the future is great, I will applaud BWS, applaud the government of Belize for having that foresight but the foresight is about two years late and that's all we can say."