Sunday 15 October 2017

Water Crises

            "Aurangabad breweries face 50% water cut"


Aurangabad, 27 August, 2017: Breweries in Aurangabad region, one of the main industrial clusters of Maharashtra , have to brace for a 50 percent water cut from Wednesday, to be increased to 60 percent post-May 10 as per directions of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court that were given considering the severe drought in the region.
The water cut will help the government save 3.12 million litres of water per day, a fraction of the overall requirement of 250 mld of drinking water in Aurangabad, for which there is a provision for the next 120 days even without an industrial cut, an official from the state waterresources department said.
Auarangabad's 11 breweries were already facing a 20 percent water cut,which was increased to 30 percent last week following protests from farmer groups and politicians opposing water supply to the liquor industry during a drought. Besides the eleven breweries and distillers, the Bombay High Court ordered a 25 percent cut for other industries in the belt, up from the current 20 percent.
As per figures from the department, breweries in Aurangabad, including major brands such as Fosters, Carlsberg and Kingfisher, together require 5.207 mld water. 
Ashish Garde, president, Chamber of Maharashtra Industries to any surrounding village in dire need. In the last 3-4 years, industries have adopted measures and invested in technology to function with less water, and a marginal reduction of 10-20 percent would have helped industries run smoothly, but such a huge water cut will have a direct impact on production."
He added that while there haven't been any layoffs till now,such a steep water cut may impact direct and indirect jobs in the coming days. Swadheen Kshatriya, state chief secretary, said, "we are facing an unprecedented situation where there have been four bconsecutive droughts. But we hope this is only traditional, and there will be a good monsoon as experts have predicted. Till then, we are focusing on making treated sewage water available for industries."
In the Aurangabad itself, the government has decided to increase sewage treatment capacity, currently at 163 mld of treated sewage water to cater to the industrial demand in the belt and is preparing to float a tender soon, a senior industries department official said. 
The breweries and distilleries in Aurangabad employ 3,560 people and pay a yearly excise duty of Rs 3,472.76 crore to the state government,with a cumulative production of 382.04 million litres, as par state government data. Besides six breweries-Skoi Breweries, Aurangabad Breweries, Fosters India Ltd, Lilasons Industries and Millennium Beer, a subsidiary of United Brewerirs-Aurangabad district has bevrrage units of Pepsico India at Paithan, IndoEuropean Breweries at Waluj, and three country Liquor manufacturing units at Chikalthana and Shendra.

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