Industry and Water Use
By Dr Arvind Kumar
Rapid pace of industrialization in fast emerging economies, including India, is likely to put additional pressure on already depleting water resources. The industrial sector is expected to replace agriculture sector, which has traditionally been the biggest user of water. According to recent World Bank estimates, water requirement for industrial use will quadruple from the current 30 billion cubic metres to 120 billion cubic metres by 2025. The UNDP’s World Water Development Report of 2003 had estimated that in 2003, industry accounted for 22% of global freshwater consumption and by 2025 that percentage was expected to double. Further, most of the increase in industrial water use is likely to happen in fast-developing countries like India. And as manufacturing industries migrate to developing countries, the pressure on the water sources of those countries will only intensify. According to Arjun Thapan, special senior adviser on water and infrastructure to the Asian Development Bank, India’s demand for water in 2030 is estimated to be about doubled that of China’s: 1,500 billion cubic metres compared to 818 billion cubic metres in China.
In the wake of growing pressures from water exprts, a segment of Indian industries has started to transform the way it uses and re-uses its own water supplies. According to a recent published in Livwmint, Car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd at its Gurgaon site launched a waste water programme in the early 1990s and achieved a zero-waste discharge by 2003. That means no water leaves the site in; all water used there, be it effluent, sewage or rainwater is cleaned and pumped back into the system. The other industries need to emulate the Maruti-Suzuki model in ensuring water use efficiency. The industry should develop on-site pre-treatment facilities to treat and reuse the waste it generates. This would help reduce the reliance on groundwater, a particularly stressed water source in the megacities and industrial zones.
