Indian textile company Grasim initiates water management at Nagda unit

At Grasim Industries, the three R (Reduce, Recycle and Reuse) principles have been effectively applied for protecting and conserving water, which has resulted in significant reduction in freshwater intake of its fibre production units, according to the company.

"Excellence in water management practices are integral to Grasim’s commitment towards water stewardship. These included innovations for improving the efficiency of processes to reduce consumption and multiple times reuse of water. For this, Grasim has adopted state-of-the-art novel technologies such as membrane processes, which could clean up and recycle the wastewater," Grasim said in a press release.

“Nagda plant is leading the way with the VSF business being the lowest water consumer globally,” said Dilip Gaur, managing director, Grasim Industries. “The plant also meets water needs of the entire city, railway and irrigation needs of the farmers through the 30 billion litres storage capacity built by Grasim.”

“Grasim Nagda plant makes large range of dope-dyed fibres which are dyed at the time of manufacturing of fibre itself. This technology consumes 50 per cent less chemicals and does not require any additional water for colouring, reducing the water requirement in the post fibre stage for colouring to zero,” said K Suresh, unit head, SFD Nagda. “The newly developed fibre Livaeco by Birla Cellulose uses 40 per cent less water compared to the European Best Available Technology limits.”

In last few years, Grasim-Nagda has taken the great step of committing to Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). Work is in progress and will be completed in 2021. Nagda Plant will be the first viscose unit in the world to achieve ZLD.

Taking inspiration from the UN SDG 6 for protecting, conserving and regenerating the water eco-system, Grasim is committed towards working in this direction to improve the availability of water, the most precious shared resource, for everyone.

In 2020, Grasim Industries was ranked 9th among the top 10 Indian corporates for its Sustainability and CSR practices by the ET and Futurescape 7th Responsible Business Rankings and won the prestigious Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustainability in the Textile and Apparel sector and Industries resonating the commitment to its stakeholders.

Grasim's holistic CSR programme is carried out under the aegis of the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, spearheaded by Rajashree Birla, the chairperson of the Centre.

Besides the CSR team, Grasim works very closely with the District Rural Development Authorities, Health Department, Village Panchayats, the District Animal Husbandry, Agriculture, Horticulture, departments among others. The community engagement programme of Grasim-Nagda spans 55 villages and 25 urban slums, reaching out to over 1 lakh people.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)