ITC Launches Initiatives To Address Water Scarcity, Conserve Biodiversity: CMD Puri

New Delhi, July 27, 2024: ITC has initiated several initiatives to address the critical issue of water security and conserve biodiversity, its Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Puri has said.

Addressing the company’s 113th AGM recently, Puri shared his vision on the topic, ‘ITC: Stakeholder Value through Purposeful Performance’. He said ITC has initiated extensive demand and supply-side interventions.

“The Integrated Watershed Development Programmes now cover 1.6 million acres with over 32,000 water structures, while demand side interventions reduce agricultural water use by up to 50% across 1.5 million acres. As I mentioned, 8 of our units have received the AWS Platinum certification. We aim to create water-harvesting potential equal to over 5 times our net water consumption by 2030. Going beyond these efforts, we are also working on reviving river basins with negative water balance, thereby securing value-chains and serving communities,” he said.

Success in the Ghod river basin has led ITC to pursue similar projects in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, and MP. Urban water projects are underway in Bengaluru, Chennai and Saharanpur. In addition, ITC has partnered the Government of Karnataka to enable drought-proofing of 3 lakh acres and with the Government of Maharashtra to promote water literacy, Puri said.

Recent studies point out that the health of natural ecosystems and biodiversity assumes critical importance as 55% of world GDP is dependent on nature.

ITC’s Biodiversity Conservation programmes aimed at reviving ecosystem services and supporting livelihoods cover 4.7 lakh acres. Recognising that development of sustainable agri-scapes and mangroves conservation helps in creating a carbon sink with higher sequestration, ITC is piloting a programme for mangroves conservation in Andhra Pradesh, Puri said.

ITC’s climate action builds competitiveness and resilience of its businesses even as it addresses national priorities. While decarbonization projects aid mitigation, the adaptation programmes have been intensified in vulnerable rural areas, leveraging our deep agricultural and community engagement to enable more impactful outcomes, he said.