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The brewer which has a production centre in the South Asian country launched a solidarity project to supply water in one of the country's driest areas.
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This initiative was made possible thanks to the involvement of the company's more than 2,700 employees who participated in the
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To implement the project, Mahou San Miguel selected the local association SCRIA, which has extensive experience developing sustainable projects in rural communities in India.
Madrid, 11 August 2015.- Mahou San Miguel, one of Spain's leading brewers, promoted the “Mójate por el Agua en India” project which, with the help of the company's more than 2,700 employees, launched an initiative to supply water in 10 villages in the Churu desert (India), one of the country's driest regions.
“An essential part of our business strategy at Mahou San Miguel, is supporting the local communities where we operate”, said Beatriz Herrera, Mahou San Miguel's Corporate Responsibility Director. "Through this awareness campaign we want to get our employees involved in the rational use of resources and carry out a project which has a positive impact on the surrounding area."
The goal of “Mójate por el Agua en India” is to raise employee awareness of the lack of water in the South Asian country where Mahou San Miguel has been operating since last year and where it has a production centre in Rajasthan, the state where the Churu desert is located. The company's employees in Spain and in India participated by contributing ideas about how to save water at home which, the company then translated into an economic contribution with which is launched the solidarity project.
The campaign came to fruition through the construction of 30 wells which will provide water to 10 villages in the Churu desert. Until now, the women in the region travelled several hours every day to get water. Due to the lack of infrastructure, the main economic activities in the region–agriculture and livestock–were dependent in large part on the water obtained during the monsoon season. Thus, the company decided to set up certain infrastructure which would collect rain water and which would supply the villages throughout the rest of the year. In order to get the local communities involved in the project as a whole, it was the residents who worked to build the 30 wells over the last three months.
Mahou San Miguel's commitment to responsible water management was the motivation behind its participation in the CEO Water Mandate in 2014. “Mójate por el Agua en India” is part of the company's commitment to the environment in relation to which it invested more than EUR 3.5 million in 2014. Mahou San Miguel continues to grow by protecting the environment with a 2020 strategy aligned with the United Nations' millennium goals. Due to its investment efforts in recent years, despite having increased production by 43% since 2000, Mahou San Miguel has reduced its water consumption by 38%, its energy consumption by 43% and its emissions by 43%. Today, 99.5% of the company's waste is reused.