Running dry

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: China is working with General Electric to recycle 90% of its wastewater to comply with Beijing’s strict new “zero-liquid discharge” rules, which bar companies from dumping wastewater into the environment. Of Nestlé’s 481 factories worldwide, 49 are in extremely water-stressed regions where water conservation and re-use is the only option.

Such farsightedness is, alas, only a drop in the bucket. In a drought, even water-efficient factories can run into trouble. Moreover, the water used within a factory’s walls is often only a tiny fraction of a firm’s true dependence on water. José Lopez, the chief operating officer of Nestlé, notes that it takes four litres of water to make one litre of product in Nestle’s factories, but 3,000 litres of water to grow the agricultural produce that goes into it. These 3,000 litres may be outside his control, but they are very much a part of his business.