Reinforces its Water Conservation Commitment, within the plant and in the region

• Helped local communities construct over 150 harvesting structures in the last two years, a total of over 300 since 2018

• Company’s water-positive initiatives benefit 8000 locals in 5 villages across Nawabpeta, Talamanchipatnam, Peddakomerla, Bheemagundam, Bhuthamapuram

• Kadapa plant is 5X water positive now

Kadapa, AP, March 22, 2023: Dalmia Bharat Limited, one of the nation’s leading cement manufacturers, celebrated World Water Day by reinforcing its championship for water positivity – denoting that the company is making more water available than it uses. Dalmia Bharat has a target of water positivity of 20 – producing 20 times more water than it uses by 2025 . Its cement plant in Kadapa is 5x water positive.

To enable this Dalmia Bharat has initiated a host of water conservation activities in Kadapa. Around 8300 people have benefitted from the soil and water conservation projects across five villages including Nawabpeta, Talamanchipatnam, Peddakomerla, Bheemagundam and Bhuthamapuram. Kadapa is in a semi-arid region with an average annual rainfall of around 600 mm. The water availability reduces drastically during the summer season. Dalmia Bharat has identified and created awareness in the local population for constructing a water structure that can store water for the dry season. Over 300 water harvesting structures like farm ponds, village ponds, check dams, gabion structures, etc been constructed by Dalmia Bharat in 2018. In this year alone close to 8 lakh CuM of water positivity index have been added. With more water availability, there has been a 20% increase in crop yield and a 15% increase in income on average from agriculture. 80% of Integrated Watershed Projects initiatives in association with NABARD are also being rolled out in not only Kadapa but also in Dalmiapuram.

The Kadapa plant in itself is a case study in water conservation winning several awards including the ‘Noteworthy Water Efficient Unit’ award in the category of ‘Within the Fence,’ at the CII National Award for Excellence in Water Management 2022. The plant has used worn-out mines and dug garland drains for storage to meet its water requirements. In FY 21, it increased the capacity of these water ponds from 1.2 million m3 to 2 million m3. These measures have helped increase water availability during summers and achieve water positivity five times the plant’s annual consumption. Other system upgrades have also resulted in significant water and energy savings for the plant, such as a change in cooler parts which has reduced water consumption by approximately 60%.

Commenting on its water stewardship initiatives, Mr. Mukesh Sinha, Unit Head – Kadapa said, “At Dalmia Bharat we are committed to our philosophy of Clean & Green is Profitable and Sustainable. We promote sustainable practices across our operations and adopt measures for the conservation of the environment and its impact on the surrounding communities. Our Social Return On Impact (SROI) assessment suggests that our interventions in soil and water conservation have generated value of 4.0x in the life our stakeholders. At Dalmia Bharat, we are dedicated to the region, its environment and community at large and hope to sustain these efforts to build a better future for all.”

Water conservation is a growing global concern. While cement is not a water-intensive industry, Dalmia Bharat is adopting several measures to reduce, reuse, recycle and practice zero-liquid discharge to become water positive. Through its focus on sustainable water conservation practices and rainwater harvesting the company is working towards increasing water access for local and communities and conservation and enrichment of natural ecosystems.