24.3% reduction in specific freshwater intake in Bhadrachalam unit over the last year
In 2009-2010, ITC units withdrew 29.96 million kilolitres(KL) of fresh water (32.7 Million KL in 2008-2009), a substantial reduction of 8.4% over the previous year, despite significant growth in almost all businesses. This was made possible only by the focused approach of all Units through water audits, benchmarking and adoption of best practices to try and achieve the lowest possible specific water consumption (water required per unit of production).
Water Sources
Of the 29.96 million KL of fresh water, 80.92% of water was sourced from rivers, 17.25% from ground water sources and only 1.83% from municipal water supplies.
Of this total fresh water intake by ITC, our 3 Paperboards & Specialty Paper mills (Bhadrachalam, Kovai and Tribeni) alone account for 91.9 %.
Bhadrachalam Unit
The largest integrated paper and paperboards mill in India accounted for 76.9% of the total freshwater intake in ITC. While the production volumes have increased close to three times between 1998-99 and 2009-2010, the fresh water intake of the mill has gone up by only 19% over the same period.
In 2009-2010, Bhadrachalam Unit’s freshwater intake was 54.67 Kilolitre per tonne of product, a remarkable improvement of 24.3% over the last year (72.23 KL/ tonne in 2008-2009).
This is well ahead of the proposed benchmark standard of 63 KL/tonne, set by National Productivity Council (NPC) for large scale integrated pulp and paper mills. (Reference: Final Report on Development of Guidelines for Water Conservation in Pulp and Paper Sector by NPC, New Delhi, March 2006).
