Water management project recycles 16.5 billion litres of water

By OEM Update Editorial August 3, 2021 8:03 pm IST

Water saving projects resulted in conserving more than 700 million litres of water in the same period FY20-21.

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.
Adding to the long list of ongoing water conservation projects, Vedanta has recently operationalised 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 & 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.”

Vedanta Aluminium has a hawk-eyed focus on optimising water consumption across its value-chain and increasing the share of recycled and reused water. Towards conserving fresh-water and ensuring maximum recycling and reutilisation of water, the company has undertaken robust measures, such as:

• Conducting water-screening assessment across all business units
• Integration of water management
• Continuous and online monitoring of water parameters
• Regular water consumption related audits
• Monitoring and control of main process water pipe valve through SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system.
• Optimisation of fresh water intake by maximising usage of water recycled through state-of-the-art Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP), augmented with Ultra Filtration (UF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) equipment.

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High-end treatment, to improve quality of recycled water.
• Specific water consumption reduction institutionalised as an important Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for each Business Unit.
• On-site water reservoirs created for water sourcing during contingency scenarios.
• Response plans for extreme weather conditions, including unprecedented heavy rainfall, developed at sites.

Vedanta also supports the local communities in securing access to good quality water, by aiding the local governments in supplying drinking water to peripheral communities during summer months.

Helping farmers in the community adopt drip-irrigation, treadle pump, solar powered water pumps, rainwater harvesting structures like percolation tanks, etc. to boost irrigation potential and reduce dependency on monsoons for cropping.

The company has built several water-related community infrastructures like tube wells, bore wells, ponds, percolation tanks, etc. to help communities’ access water for household and irrigation purposes.

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 – CleanWater and Sanitation.

Vedanta Aluminium business, a division of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest manufacturer of aluminium, producing half of India’s aluminium at 1.96 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in FY21. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. With its world-class Aluminium Smelters, Alumina Refinery and Power Plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.

https://www.vedantalimited.com