Water conservation
Water scarcity is one of the biggest crisis facing India. Water management has been a focus area for HUL, and has been made one of the key performance indicators for all HUL factories.
HUL is also committed to extending its efforts on water management to the larger community, and has engaged in community projects in water adjacent to our manufacturing sites. HUL's Khamgaon factory is located in a dry and arid region of Maharashtra. Around 12 years ago the factory started a pilot project on 'Watershed Management' on a five hectare plot to prevent soil degradation and conserve water. The efforts have resulted in the creation of a green belt, which is now a veritable forest of about 6,300 trees.
Encouraged by the results, HUL extended the model to a neighbouring village, Parkhed, in association with TERI and Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation. The community at Parkhed has already constructed 47 percolation bunds, 1,600 trenches, 6,000 running metres of continuous contour trenching over 100 hectares and 5 permanent check dams. Around 350 families have reaped a second crop this year which is only possible due to construction of check dams. Total land under cultivation during second crop season is 470 acres.
The annual income of the farmers in the vicinity of 5 check dams increased from around an average of Rs. 36,000/- to approx. Rs. 85,000/- per annum per farmer. This has been attributed to the availability of water in the wells during the Rabbi season and also increase in the level of water in the wells during the Kharif season. Hence, along with reaping a rabbi crop, the farmers have also been able to almost double the yield of the Kharif crop. The initiative received appreciation at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Silvassa
Karchond near Silvassa spans 1491 hectares and has a population of 3253 consisting of 478 families. The chief occupation of the area is farming for 4 months when water is available. After this the population migrates to Daman Silvassa for labor/contract jobs. Thus, water conservation was a great necessity. In association with Vanarai, an NGO, HUL's Silvassa unit embarked on a long-term project of water harvesting, which aimed to dramatically change water availability, taking it up to year-round availability from 4 months.
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