Context-Based Water Targets Pilot Study – Noyyal-Bhavani River Basin

At the global level, there is an emerging recognition and a push for industries to take greater responsibility towards efficient and sustainable water management within and beyond their fence. For product-based industries in developed economies that have outsourced water-intensive manufacturing to developing countries, the water footprints in river basins are significant and the issues around them complex.

One of the initiatives to improve corporate water stewardship involves setting water targets for industrial facilities by defining metrics related to the issues that are contextually relevant to the river basins in which they are situated. This approach involves identification of shared water challenges in river basins (for different stakeholders), water target setting and metrics relevant to the basins and that are in line with local and national policy and the SDGs.

ATREE has received a grant from the Pacific Institute, USA for conducting a pilot study in the Noyyal-Bhavani river basin in South India. This is a part of a larger initiative by the Pacific Institute and the CEO Water Mandate to advocate for corporate water target setting which includes pilot studies in different river basins. The objectives of ATREE’s study include identification of main water challenges in the Noyyal-Bhavani river basin, describing the baseline and desired end line conditions for a set of water related metrics and estimation of water use by different sectors. The study is based on secondary data analysis, GIS mapping and key informant interviews. The study duration is Oct 2018 – April 2019.