(TH)
India’s steelmakers, more accustomed to securing raw materials such as iron ore and coal, are keeping another key resource in their sights: water. Two of India’s biggest steelmakers – JSW Steel and Tata Steel – and metal producer Vedanta have flagged risks due to water shortages in the past month as the world’s second-most populous country faces an unprecedented water crisis.
Competition for the resource is set to grow in India, where nearly a third of the country is water-stressed, increasing costs and risks for companies. A delayed monsoon, which accounts for 70 per cent of the nation’s annual rainfall, has exacerbated the situation this year.
The urgency surrounding water supply risks is not lost in our discussions with companies, but the talking is still happening behind closed doors, according to Damandeep Singh, director at CDP, which runs a global disclosure system for companies and others to report environmental risks. The problem is that when companies in India get water, they get it cheap. There’s no incentive to manage a resource when it is available so cheap.
