The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MAR 22, 2023
Vedanta Aluminium Business, India’s largest producer of aluminium, has recycled 12.5 billion litres of water as of February during FY 2022-23.
On World Water Day, the company has also undertaken the groundbreaking ceremony of a new Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) with a processing capacity of 440 kilo litres per day (KLD), at its mega aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda. Once operational, the treated water from the facility will be reused within the plant premises, reducing fresh water consumption by 15 crore litres per year. This reiterates the company’s commitment to become Net Water Positive within the decade, leveraging advanced technologies for efficient water utilisation and community participation towards building a sustainable water footprint. Vedanta Aluminium’s water sustainability efforts are aligned to the 6th UN Sustainable Development Goal of ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’.
In the week leading up to World Water Day, Vedanta Aluminium organized an interactive session with Ramveer Tanwar, popularly known as the Pond Man of India and a noted pond conservationist, to encourage employees and community members to work towards water conservation in their personal and professional capacities. Desilting and restoration activities of several waterbodies were also undertaken at its operations in Kalahandi and Jharsuguda districts of Odisha and Korba in Chhattisgarh, with the active participation of employee volunteers and professional experts. Further, the company organized community marches and street plays at local educational institutions to spread increased awareness of the need to conserve water.
Speaking about the program, Vedanta Limited – Aluminium Business CEO Rahul Sharma said, “On World Water Day, we recommit to our mission of becoming Net Water Positive and ensuring a sustainable water footprint in the regions where we operate. The quality of our lives and business sustainability is contingent on the planet and hence, excellence in ESG (Environment, Social & Governance) forms the bedrock of our aspirations. Water is a critical shared resource that is crucial to sustaining the ecology and communities around us, and hence, our endeavours are aimed at ensuring the sustainability of our operations and making more water available for local communities and biodiversity.”
Commenting on the impact of the new STP project, Vedanta Jharsuguda COO (Power) Ajay Pandey said “Our operations maintain a laser-focus on ensuring the judicious usage of precious water resources. By deploying a strategic mix of resource conservation and source rejuvenation programs, we have been successful in achieving a steady improvement in our water management efforts. The new Sewage Treatment Plant provides an additional fillip to our efforts in this regard and will help accelerate our roadmap to water positivity.”
The company has a structured 4-pronged approach to water sustainability, which involves robust monitoring of water usage, ensuring maximum water reutilization, creating a positive water footprint, and working with local communities.
Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.27 million tonnes in FY22. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 2nd in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) 2022 world rankings for aluminium industry, a reflection of its 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.
