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India faces a turbulent water future. With over 16% of the global population having access to less than 3% land mass and less than 4% fresh water resources in the world, water scarcity in India is likely to worsen over the years.

ITC’s sustainability objective, in the area of water, focuses on:

• Conservation, Audit and Benchmarking – to achieve the lowest specific water consumption (water used per unit of production).

• Zero water discharge – treating and recycling all waste water, thereby not only reducing fresh water intake but also preventing pollution of fresh water resources.

• Creating a positive footprint – through rainwater harvesting, both at the Company’s premises and through external watershed development projects.

The total fresh water intake by all ITC businesses in 2006-07 amounted to 25.79 million kilolitres (MKL).

All the businesses/units continued water conservation efforts to minimise specific water consumption. ITC’s Packaging & Printing business achieved 33% reduction, the Leaf business 21%, the Cigarettes business 13% and Paperboards & Specialty Papers business 6.3 % reduction in specific water consumption this year.

The two Paperboards and Specialty Paper units at Bhadrachalam and Tribeni together account for 85.8% of the total fresh water intake by ITC. Implementing water audit recommendations, deploying advanced technology, increasing awareness and improving resource management have enabled these units to reduce specific water consumption by 7.9% and 5.7%, respectively.

Other units that achieved significant savings in specific water consumption during the year were: Packaging & Printing unit at Tiruvottiyur (44%), Leaf Threshing plant at Chirala (26%), Cigarette units at Munger (20%), Kidderpore (15%) and Saharanpur (17%); Paperboards unit at Bollarum (18%) and Hotel Rajputana (22%).
  

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