Alcobev major Diageo has taken up initiatives to rejuvenate two of India’s most important river basins -Godavari and Yamuna- as part of its water replenishment and WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) strategies. The company has done a pilot project on regenerative agricultural practice with paddy on nearly 810 hectares in Telangana and is in talks with a few companies to expand it to Andhra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.On the river basin initiatives, Navdeep Singh Mehram, Vice-President, CSR & Sustainability, Diageo India, said: “We are working in Nanded and in Nasik, two different ends of the Godavari in Maharashtra. We have just started working in the Yamuna river basin.” Collective actionThe company launched The Godavari Initiative, now in its third year, to build basin-level collective action. It got a good response from the private sector, with Coca-Cola India and Arvind Mills being the latest to join the initiative.
Srinidhi S. Rao, Head of Sustainability, Diageo India,
“It is a collective action where the corporate sector, the government, the NGOs and the panchayats all come together and actually bring in the knowledge on the table of who all are working in the Godavari River Basin. With each sector having its own priority, we try to collectivise the whole thing,” he said in an online interaction with businessline.Launched when Chandrayaan landed on the moon two years ago, Diageo has now handed over the baton to Coca-Cola. “Jain Irrigation and a few other Maharashtra companies, including paper and sugar mills, have joined the initiative,” he said. Mapping entire basinThe basin sees flooding in some areas and drought in others. So, the entire basin of 9 districts from Nashik to Nanded is being mapped. In dry zones, the project looks at cleaning the channels so that water flows through them every monsoon and thus, drought can be avoided. “Wherever there is flooding, we look at balancing the water. We are engaging NGOs and others to execute the project,” said Singh.Arvind Mills wants to do a similar thing for the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, while Telangana is also showing interest for the basin of the Moosi river, which draws water from the Godavari. “We are present in Nashik as Diageo. We are doing all water replenishment, pond bonding, and many projects in and outside the Godavari area,” he said, addin that the company has role in preparing for the oncoming Kumbh Mela in the city.Getting ready for Kumbh“We have set up boom barriers on the river basin to collect plastic waste; we are partnering with the district administration to collect the flower waste, and recycling it to make the Godavari clean. We are part of the committee which is working on the Kumbh administration for Nasik,” said the Diageo official.The company is looking at extension projects with farmers around the river basins, particularly for cotton and sugarcane growers. Jain Irrigation and Coca-Cola have shown interest in this. Diageo’s TGI has led to other companies taking up projects, with some adopting 5 villages, another the Ramsar site. “We are working in Nanded and in Nasik, two different ends of the Godavari in Maharashtra. We are investing ₹ 3-3.5 crore on different water projects,” said Singh.Ponds’ desiltingParticularly in Nanded, the district administration has offered a 5 km channel to the company, which needs to clean it up as it causes flooding in the region. “With Coca-Cola taking over the project leadership currently, we would look at mapping different target groups, beneficiaries and the geography,” he said, adding that next the company would hire an institute to do the hydrogeology and aquifer mapping. On desilting of ponds, he said they are called Malgosari ponds, which are spillover ones. The company has picked 6 ponds in Maharashtra that are actually lakes for desilting. Since it took over this, there has been no complaint of flooding of the standing crops, particularly paddy. Improving water availability“We are doing these as part of our ‘grain to glass sustainability ’ strategy. We are heavily invested in Maharashtra because we have four manufacturing units. We have one in Alwar (Rajasthan), one in Odisha, and one in Kumbalgodu in Karnataka. Apart from that, we have a small unit in Goa,” said Srinidhi S. Rao, Head of Sustainability, Diageo India, said These initiatives have helped in improving water availability for a couple of more months in these regions, helping farmers plan a cash crop to earn more. “In Rajasthan, farmers have added onion as another irrigation cycle has been made available because of the rejuvenation of water bodies,” said Rao. On the regenerative agriculture project, he said it has helped to reduce water utilisation by 60-70 per cent by the farmers, who use wetting and drying mechanism alternatively, resulting in significant carbon reduction. Key raw materialBroken rice is one of the key raw materials for the alcobev firm. Therefore, the company is looking at designing projects in five States. “We are in conversation with few other companies, who also depend on paddy cultivation for their business portfolio in these regions. Once we make this call, we would like to expand this,” he said. As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, the company is providing silt dug from lakes and ponds of its projects to farmers, constructed toilets, building check dams and rainwater harvesting structures.It is also experimenting with a pilot project on grey water management in association with TERI in Alwar, where 2 lakh trees have been planted through local community partnership. Published on August 25, 2026
