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  Water resource management is an important part of the sustainable development of the iron and steel industry, and the level of water resource management will directly affect the image of the iron and steel industry. In order to fully understand the experience of global iron and steel industry in water management and demonstrate the responsible water resources management practice of iron and steel industry, the world iron and Steel Association officially launched the water resources management research project in February 2021.

  The focus of this research is to collect and sort out typical cases of water resources management in iron and steel enterprises under different water use conditions and different policy environments. Iron and steel enterprises around the world are facing various water resource challenges and policy constraints. The project team will collect water management practices and cases from different types of steel plants around the world to share their solutions and future plans.

  During the three-month investigation, the project team plans to select about 20 iron and steel enterprises to carry out the investigation. The participating enterprises have the opportunity to share their practical experience with peers in the world through webinars and other forms, so as to promote other iron and steel enterprises to improve water management performance. After the completion of the project, the main research results will be published and shared in the form of publications.

  This survey is mainly qualitative and will cover all types of steel plants and all kinds of water resources challenges, including comprehensive utilization of water resources, water shortage, water resources quality challenges, zero discharge of sewage, water rules and regulations, etc.

  Water resources is a global environmental issue of common concern to human beings. The problems related to water resources are quite different in different regions and will be reflected in various forms, including water shortage, flood, water pollution and sea level rise. Most of the problems are expected to worsen in the future due to the impact of climate change.

  In order to deeply understand the current situation of water use efficiency in the global iron and steel industry, the world iron and Steel Association carried out an in-depth qualitative benchmarking study on water resources management in 2011. The project research shows that water resources are extremely important for the iron and steel industry, and will become more important in the future. The shortage of water resources and deterioration of water quality will endanger the production of iron and steel, which needs further attention.

  According to the qualitative research results in 2011, in the iron and steel industry, the water consumption of blast furnace process is the largest, followed by hot rolling, cold rolling and coking. The water consumption intensity expressed by water intake varies greatly among different steel plants. The water consumption per ton of steel varies from 1 m3 to nearly 100 m3.

  The overall efficiency of water use in iron and steel enterprises is very high. However, due to the amount of water resources in different regions, regulatory environment, process types of steel plants and other reasons, there are still significant differences between similar processes in different steel plants.

  According to the policy environment, water management system, water efficiency and other factors, the project team made a comprehensive evaluation on the water management level of the selected iron and steel enterprises. The results show that, with 100 as the full score, the average score of enterprises participating in the evaluation is 67, of which the lowest is 31 and the highest is 94.

• [Editor:Catherine Ren]