OREANDA-NEWS. Tata Steel's Noamundi Iron Mine won laurels at the FICCI Water Awards 2013. The Mine bagged first prize in the category of Industrial Water Efficiency for its rain water harvesting and industrial water conservation projects. At a glittering ceremony held in New Delhi on Aug 6, 2013, the award was presented to the Company by Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Republic of India. Mr Saroj Banerjee, Chief, Engineering Services, Tata Steel and Mr Sanjay Das, Gen. Secretary, Noamundi Majdoor Union received this prestigious award on behalf of Tata Steel.

Noamundi Iron Mine is an ideal mine which implements scientific mining practices to ensure that no industrial effluent is discharged outside the lease boundary. Conservation of water is a continuous process here and different initiatives are taken both in the mines and processing plants to excel further. The water that goes to the slime pond along with the Iron ore slime is stored in zero discharge slime ponds and pumped back to the process to minimize fresh water requirement. Similarly, dust ban chemical is added to the sprinkling water to reduce the sprinkling frequency and also for effective dust suppression.

For conserving the depleting source of water and also to attain self-sufficiency in water, rain water harvesting site named Aqua Park has been developed at Noamundi during previous years. Due to concerted efforts by the Company towards construction of rain water harvesting parks, ground water table has been increased and dependency on river water has been reduced. The park covering an area of over 1000 meter square with water shed area of 12 lakh meter square, has been designed with water bodies, graceful statutes, park lights under shadow of avenue trees, and fountains.

FICCI Water Awards are instituted to recognize the efforts of Indian industry in the areas of water efficiency, conservation and management. The awards aim at felicitating different organizations for their contribution to the industry through innovation for increased efficiency with improved performance, and community building at large.