Consultivo Blog | Environment & Energy
Water Crisis seek solution from decision makers which is eventually catered by a group of professionals, these experts provide external assurance or scientific knowledge support towards sustainable water management.
While securing water, every sector stands in confrontation with the other. The confrontations are generated from the issues related to ownership and allocation of water and also from incompatible intellectual and political traditions that defend often irreconcilable opposing principles and values.
While developing water resource for use in industries, the corporates confront these traditions, values, myths, political interventions, and a great amount of opposition from scientific and environmental activists.
To overcome the issues and to maximise the benefit from the social intervention in managing water resource, the concept of water resource management evolved in the late 60s. Since water is a finite resource and a large section of the planet has turned into water stressed regions the term sustainable water management has become very relevant for every industry in every region.
Water Resource Management
Challenges
Main water related problems faced by the industries are:
overexploitation of resources
water pollution, erratic wastewater disposal and landfills
depletion of source water quality
inadequate investment in securing water
Above all, water management is sensitive to local issues and social radicalism.
Impact of Industrial usage
Industrial water demand is larger in scale than domestic supply and needs full assessment of the yield of sources, assessment of use, assessment of discharge and overall impact on the environment. The main areas where industries require consultants or external assurance are:
- statutory and legal requirements
- ensuring water security
- water conservation (quality and quantity)
- delivering water stewardship and corporate social responsibility (CSR)
- mitigating reputational risk
Initiatives to take for sustainability of water resources
Statutory and legal requirements
- Baseline study (hydrological, hydrogeological, watershed)
- Impact mitigation plan
- Licencing
- Periodical reporting and disclosure
Water sourcing
- Finding a suitable and sustainable source of water
- Preparation of status reports
- Water profiling
Water Sustainability
- Planning and designing sustainable water infrastructure
- Water audit and water loss control
- Water footprint study
- Water balance study
- Benchmarking
- Basin level hydrological study for sustainability
- Effluent and wastewater treatment
- Management of wastewater and solid waste
- Water recycling and reuse
- Rainwater harvesting and artificial recharge
- Stakeholders’ engagement in water management
- Socioeconomic study for site and beneficiary selection
- Training and capacity building
- Ecological development
- Water literacy and awareness
- Preparation of reports and propaganda materials
- Public relation
- Preparing reports and disclosure notes for organisations like GRI reporting, Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) Reporting, CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project)
Services need to delivered
Delivering water related services may start even before an industry is physically commissioned. A company can engage consultants for:
- conducting the geophysical and geological survey and preparing the hydrogeological report to secure a permit for installing tube wells
- the hydrological study, site selection and designing surface water development strategy
- designing a rainwater harvesting system for water conservation
- for defending their case in the public hearing
This enables them to successfully meet the regulatory requirements, secure water availability and overcome reputational risk.
After commissioning and starting production an industry requires to conduct a water audit or water footprint study to assess water sustainability and to make water use more productive and economic. Water professional can suggest more avenues of water conservation and can explore hidden resources that are more economical to exploit. The expert can also deliver services to help an industry mitigating its reputational risks and help to formulate CSR policies.
Industries need to be vigilant on the water resource they depend upon. It is more important in a water stressed area where the sustainability of a business is under risk. In addition to statutory compliance and disclosure, a systematic assessment of water resource, periodical water use audit, monitoring and estimation of source water will help the industry in prior planning of their water management activities and water stewardship initiatives.
About Consultivo
Consultivo is a management advisory and consulting firm helping global businesses in the areas of Sustainability, Business Excellence & Risk Management – both in strategic and operational levels.
Consultivo research and analytics wing works on industry, society and community oriented research programs on ESG, Sustainability and business risk in both qualitative and quantitative fields.
As an Independent and leading CSR Consultant in India, Consultivo offers CSR Strategy Consulting, Baseline and Need Assessment, Stakeholder Mapping and Engagement, CSR Project Monitoring and Evaluation, CSR Impact Assessment, SROI Assessment and CSR Communication Reporting.
Share this post
Category: Blog
Tags: Environment & Energy
About the author
CEO at Consultivo
Saikat Basu is a long time sustainability and risk management professional and entrepreneur. He is having a diversified exposure to various management practices in the areas of strategic leadership, organisation excellence, financial management and people engagement. He has worked intensively with 200+ national and international standards on responsible business. He is a member of several sustainability (SHE Award, Environmental Excellence, Social Impact) award program design & jury committee. He is a passionate blogger and visiting faculty in academics.
Related insights
News & Events
Impact Stories
Blogs
Blogs
View more in Impact Stories | Blogs | Knowledge Bank | News and Events
