The Hindu Business Line : Innovation key to water conservation in industries

Industrial water conservation can come through only with proper strategy and innovative planning with management committed to water conservation as the ultimate object, a seminar on ‘Industrial Water Conservation’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said.

“First, measure the water needs of an industrial venture as one can’t have a control over the conservation unless one has a fair idea of the areas of usage. It is time that water auditing becomes part of industrial planning, as in the case of energy auditing that has come to stay as a strategy,” Mr K.S. Kasi Viswanathan, Director, operations, Seshasayee Paper and Boards Ltd, pointed out.

New technologies

Making a presentation on industrial water conservation at the seminar, Mr Kasi Viswanathan said that adopting new technologies would make significant impact on water consumption and therefore a thorough study should be undertaken.

Taking a cue from water conservation strategies put in use in Australia, he suggested that industries using 10,000 cubic metre or more of water in a year should be compelled to have a conservation action plan, impose a strict ‘not to use drinking water’ for watering lawns and strict adoption of water days with specified timings.

Turning to his own industry and its water conservation, Mr Viswanathan said paper and pulp industry stood third in water consuming and accounted for 2.26 per cent of total industrial water consumption, after thermal power plants and engineering industry.

Global consumption

The global paper and pulp consumption keeps raising from 15 million tonnes in 1950 to 350 mt now, with the US alone consuming 100 mt and China fasting catching up at 80 mt.

With adoption of technology and conservation strategies, the modern paper and pulp units in India have succeeded in bringing down the water usage for processing from 300/350 cubic metre of water per tonne of paper produced to 70-90 cubic metre now (against the global useage of 40-45cubic metre).

Seshasayee Papers, which used 35,000 cubic metre of water every day for its production, is planning to cut down its water consumption to 70/75 cubic metre from the present 95 cubic metre.

Company’s initiative

Seshasayee Papers have successfully adopted recycling of its waste/treated effluent waters for organised farming. The plant has under it 1,500 acres of sugarcane area and the farmers of these land use the treated water from the paper unit to raise sugarcane, which is supplied to Seshashayee Paper’s sister concern Ponny Sugars for crushing.

The effective way to use the recycled industrial waste water too needed planning, according to Mr Viswanathan, and crop rotation is important for lands using recycled waste-water to sustain the cultivation.

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