Vedanta Aluminium Business recycles ~14 billion litres of water in FY22
21st March 2022
- Reaffirms its commitment to Water Conservation this World Water Day
New Delhi, 21st March 2022: Vedanta Aluminium Business, India’s largest producer of aluminium, has recycled 14 billion litres of water as of January 2022 in FY 21-22, leveraging advanced technologies for focused control and monitoring of water consumption.
Vedanta Aluminium’s water sustainability efforts are guided by its robust Water Management Policy. In line with the company’s commitment to the 6th UN Sustainable Development Goal – Clean Water and Sanitation, Vedanta Aluminium strives to fulfill its water sustainability goals in three ways – increasing water reutilization, reducing freshwater consumption, and ensuring zero liquid discharge from operations. Vedanta Aluminium is also working with local communities and farmers in the regions where it operates to construct water harvesting and conservation infrastructures for perennial water supply.
Speaking about Vedanta Aluminium’s approach to water stewardship, Mr. Rahul Sharma, CEO – Aluminium Business, said, “Excellence in ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) forms the bedrock upon which we evolve our business plans. On World Water Day, we recommit to our vision of ensuring a sustainable water footprint in the regions where we operate. Our vision is rooted in the understanding that water is a critical shared resource that is crucial to sustaining the ecology and communities around us. Our journey towards making our operations water positive will ensure sustainability of our business and make available more water for local communities and biodiversity.”
Standing testimony to this year’s World Water Day theme of ‘Groundwater: Making the invisible visible’, Vedanta Aluminium has undertaken robust measures to optimize water consumption across its value-chain and increase the share of recycled and reused water, such as:
- Water-screening assessment to develop and implement stringent control measures to ensure zero discharge operations.
- Integration of water management into decision-making processes for all projects.
- Operational excellence in Cooling Tower systems have resulted in one of the best Cycles of Concentration (COC) globally; higher the COC, less is the freshwater intake, thus resulting in freshwater conservation.
- Deployment of High-Concentration Slurry Disposal (HCSD) systems in ash management, which ensures maximum water recycling through feedback loops.
- Robust monitoring of water quality parameters, including reduction of specific water consumption.
- Regular water consumption-related audits, and appropriate measures to ensure continually improved performance.
- Optimization of freshwater intake by maximizing usage of water recycled through state-of-the-art Effluent Treatment Plants (ETP), augmented with Ultra Filtration (UF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO).
- Rainwater harvesting infrastructure and on-site water reservoirs have been created for water sourcing during contingency scenarios.
- Quick Response Teams to respond to extreme weather conditions, including unprecedented heavy rainfall.
Working in the realm of sustainable livelihoods and climate impact mitigation, Vedanta Aluminium is:
- Building and rejuvenating hundreds of community water infrastructures like tube wells, bore wells, ponds, farm ponds, percolation tanks, etc. to help communities get perennial access to water for household and irrigation purposes.
- Helping local farming communities 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.
- Training communities on growing climate-resilient crops for improving yield in the face of irregular climactic conditions.
Vedanta Aluminium Business, a division of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest manufacturer of aluminium, producing half of India’s aluminium i.e., 1.97 million tonnes 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. www.vedantaaluminium.com
About Vedanta Limited:
Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading Oil & Gas and Metals company with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa and Namibia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing significantly to nation building. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and environment. Vedanta has put in place a comprehensive framework to be the ESG leader in the natural resources sector. Vedanta is committed to reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050 or sooner and has pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate the transition to net zero operations. Giving back is in the DNA of Vedanta, which is focused on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company’s flagship social impact program, Nand Ghars, have been set up as model anganwadis focused on eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare, and empowering women with skill development. Under the aegis of the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the umbrella entity for Vedanta’s social initiatives, the Vedanta group has pledged Rs 5000 crore over the next five years on social impact programmes with a thrust on nutrition, women & child development, healthcare, animal welfare, and grass-root level sports. Vedanta and the group companies have been featured in Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and was conferred Frost & Sullivan Sustainability Awards 2020, Golden Peacock Award for excellence in Corporate Governance 2022 and certified as a Great Place to Work 2022. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.
For more information, please visit www.vedantalimited.com
About Vedanta Aluminium Business:
Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.29 million tonnes in FY23. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 1st in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2023 world rankings for the aluminium industry, a reflection of its leading sustainable development practices. 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.
For more information, please log on to www.vedantaaluminium.com
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Disclaimer:
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “should” or “will.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.
