As Dubai launches the ‘Dubai Can’ initiative to encourage the use of refillable water bottles and accessible water stations, JA Resorts & Hotels leads the way in the hospitality arena, with a current saving of 3.4 million pieces of single-use plastic.

The savings have been made through the implementation of on-property water bottling plants.

By promoting refillable water bottles and installing free water stations and fountains across the city, the objective behind the ‘Dubai Can’ initiative is to vastly raise environmental awareness and reduce the impact of environmentally harmful single use plastics.  

Two years ago, in January 2019, JA Resorts & Hotels was an early adopter of this vision in the hospitality industry, installing water treatment systems along with cleaning and bottling systems at three Dubai properties - JA The Resort, JA Ocean View Hotel and JA Hatta Fort Hotel. The AED1  million ($272,000)  investment into these systems has resulted in an estimated saving of 3.4 million pieces of single use plastic so far.

Further afield across to the Indian Ocean, an on-site bottling plant can also be found at JA Manafaru resort in the Maldives, and at JA Enchanted Island resort in the Seychelles.

The JA Resorts & Hotels on-site water bottling plants are managed by the hotel teams with more than 3000 complimentary glass bottles of filtered water delivered daily to all guest rooms. There are also plenty of digital water dispensers dotted around JA The Resort, serving complimentary fresh filtered water to guests free of charge, as well as all JA team-members.

Since the 2019 launch, guest response has been positive as many Dubai visitors and residents were not aware that locally supplied water is very safe to drink and once filtered has a fresh and palatable taste. Water quality can vary from zone to zone in the UAE, so JA Resorts & Hotels is working with an experienced partner who analyses water quality and use state of the art technology to kill 99.9% of bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and heavy metals by combining reverse osmosis, micro-filtration automated copper & silver ionisation system, ultra-filtration, chemical free disinfection and activated carbon depending on the specific water requirements.

General Manager of JA The Resort, William Harley-Fleming commented: “Dubai Can is an outstanding initiative from the visionary UAE leadership to transform the city of Dubai into a more environmentally aware destination. We are delighted to support this initiative and build on our initial success, sharing our best practices with other hospitality entities in Dubai. Sustainability is at the core of the JA Resorts & Hotels brand, and our whole team is fully committed to making a difference in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.” – TradeArabia News Service