The UN has marked World Water Day on 22 March since 1993. This year, the theme is accelerating change and the UN is hosting the 2023 Water Conference, inviting governments and stakeholders to come together to commit to action and launch the Water Action Agenda. The agenda’s aim is to gather commitments from people around the world to speed up progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which promises that everyone will have access to safely managed water and sanitation by 2030.
In Anglo American and other mining companies, operational processes use up a lot of water. And according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published earlier this week, access to water supplies will continue to be limited in the years ahead. The Panel’s report revealed that half of the global population now experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year and currently 83% of our sites are in areas with medium to high water stress. Climate change also means extreme weather events, which can result in excess water in some of the countries where we operate.
Sustainable Mining Plan
Water is one of the three global stretch goals that sit under the Healthy Environment pillar of our Sustainable Mining Plan. The aim is to operate mines that use less fresh water in water scarce areas, with an interim goal of reducing the withdrawal of fresh water by 50% in water scarce areas by 2030 versus the 2015 baseline.
To help us reach our goals and respond to the broader challenges, water stewardship is an integral part of how we operate across all our sites and we continue to increase our spend on improving water quality for our communities and the environment.
Our Group Water Management Standard (WMS) sets out minimum requirements for water management and incorporates leading water management practices, risk prevention, best mining practices, and industry lessons.
The Standard also makes sure water is incorporated into the decision-making process at every stage of each operation, from when we choose a site right through to closure and post-closure. The Standard ensures that all of our operations incorporate sustainable water management practices, in line with our Values, the Sustainable Mining Plan and our Social Way.
- There’s lots more information about our approach to water across the business in our recently published Sustainability Report – pages 63 to 66
Case study: Reducing our reliance on fresh water in Chile
In November last year, we announced that we’ve secured a desalinated water supply for our Los Bronces copper mine in Chile from 2025 following the signing of an agreement with Aguas Pacífico, a Chilean water desalination and solutions provider, meeting almost half of the mine’s water requirements.
This integrated water security project (IWSP), which will be delivered in two phases, involves replacing the bulk of the current fresh water sources for the Los Bronces mine with treated waste water.
In this first phase, the desalination plant will supply up to 500 litres per second (l/s) of desalinated water to the mine from 2025, via a pipeline from the plant to a water reception pool at our Las Tórtolas operation. This desalinated water will supply more than 45% of Los Bronces’ needs while also providing clean water to approximately 20,000 people in the communities of Colina and Til Til, local to the operation, and approximately 15,000 people along the pipeline.
In the second phase, we are planning to provide desalinated water for human consumption in exchange for treated waste water that will supply our operation. At the moment, the waste water is just being discharged into the ocean. This means we could stop withdrawing fresh water for Los Bronces – our ultimate goal – while supporting the provision of clean water to local communities in the greater Valparaiso area.
The project will not only supply clean water to host communities, it will also provide a permanent water supply solution for Los Bronces, which will help us to maintain production levels and reach our 2030 fresh water reduction target.
