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Vedanta Aluminium Business, India’s largest producer of the aluminium and value-added products, has recycled 16.5 billion litres of water in FY 20-21, leveraging technology for focused control and monitoring of water consumption. The water saving projects across its alumina refinery, aluminium smelters and power plants have alone resulted in water conservation to the tune of 700 million litres.
Vedanta Aluminium’s operations are guided by the Vedanta Sustainable Development Framework, which includes a robust suite of technical and management standards and guidance notes developed in line with global sustainability management practices aligned to the International Financial Corporation (IFC), International Council for Mining and Metals (ICMM), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), etc.
The company’s Water Management Policy guides its efforts towards exploration of opportunities for reducing the water consumption and encourages increased water reutilisation and zero liquid discharge from operations, in line with Vedanta’s commitment to the 6th UN Sustainable Development Goal – Clean Water and Sanitation.
Adding to the long list of ongoing water conservation projects, Vedanta has recently operationalized another roof-top rainwater harvesting system. Set up at its Captive Power Plant in Jharsuguda, the rainwater harvesting system has a collection capacity of at least 56,000 litres of water, which will be used within the plant for various purposes.
Vedanta has also partnered with Government of Odisha’s Soil Conservation and Watershed Development division to develop 19 farm ponds in various villages of Lanjigarh region, which is not only helping local farmers irrigate their crops but also undertake aquaculture as a parallel livelihood opportunity.
Speaking about Vedanta Aluminium’s ongoing water conservation efforts, Rahul Sharma, CEO – Aluminium Business, said, “At Vedanta Aluminium Business, all of our business decisions are governed by the core tenets of ‘Zero Harm, Zero Waste and Zero Discharge’. Our vision of water stewardship is rooted in the understanding that water is a shared resource that is crucial to sustaining the ecology and communities around us. Our Water Management Standard outlines structured tracking and monitoring of local water availability, along with estimation of future changes, and we have put in place a robust water management system that takes into account all of these.”