By PTI

New Delhi: Corporate India, which has often been accused of water wastage, has set out to make a difference both in terms of improving its activities as well as creating awareness and educating the average man on the need for water conservation.

ITC, for example, states in its 2005 sustainability report that, “the water harvesting potential created so far is nearly three times the company’s net water consumption. The total rainwater harvesting (RWH) potential created is 18.86 million kilo litre.”

Union Minister of Water Resources Saif-u-Din Soz in a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha early this year, said water levels in 839 assessment units (block/mandal/taluk) out of 5,723 are over-exploited. In these units, ground water level has depleted by over 100 per cent.

The per capita availability of water now stands at 1,250 cubic metres, putting the country in a list of ‘water stressed´ countries. Thus, India is in a precarious situation as water availability is concerned, given that the country in which nearly 17 per cent of the world’s population resides has only only 4 per cent of the global freshwater resources.

Pitching in to increase freshwater resources in India is Coca Cola. The multinational company, that has been in midst of a controversy in Kerala over water drawl, claims to have set water sustainability as a key pillar of its corporate responsibility programme. This, it claims is in line with the firm’s worldwide strategy.

The major findings of the study sponsored by BT and undertaken by Economist Intelligence Unit recently, points out that Coca-Cola stepped up its sustainability activity in 2007 with thrust on water resources at the forefront.