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Environmental Performance
Water Conservation
In 2012-13, ITC Units withdrew 32.15 million Kilolitres (KL) of freshwater, an increase of 10.76% over the previous year (29.02 million KL in 2011-12). The increase in total freshwater intake is primarily due to the inclusion of the total water withdrawn for supply to the ITC owned integrated townships in Bhadrachalam, Tribeni, Anaparti and Chirala, as well as significant growth in almost all businesses. Focused efforts of all Units to reduce intake by conducting water audits, benchmarking and adopting leading practices facilitated the reduction of specific freshwater intake (water required per unit of production) as illustrated in the following sections.
Water Sources
Of the 32.15 million KL of fresh water withdrawn, 79.1% of water was sourced from rivers, 18.6% from ground water sources and only 2.3% from municipal and other water sources.During the year, the Paperboards & Specialty Papers Units at Bhadrachalam, Kovai & Tribeni together accounted for 92.2% of the total fresh water withdrawal by ITC.
Paperboards Unit at Bhadrachalam
India’s largest integrated paper and paperboards mill accounted for 74.3% of the total fresh water intake in ITC. While the production volumes have increased by more than three times between 1998-99 and 2012- 13, the fresh water intake of the mill has increased by only 15% during the same period. In 2012-13, the Bhadrachalam Unit’s freshwater intake was 46.4 Kilolitre per tonne of product, a significant reduction of 3.8% over last year’s 48.2 KL/tonne as a result of various water conservation initiatives undertaken by the Unit. It is worth mentioning that this surpasses the proposed standard of 63 KL/tonne by the 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).
