What is the difference between water withdrawal and water consumption in BRSR?
Withdrawal is all the water you take in from every source. Consumption is the part that does not leave as discharge: withdrawal minus discharge, adjusted if stored water changes a lot. A plant that takes 10,000 kL and discharges 6,500 kL consumes 3,500 kL.
Where each number comes from
- Withdrawal: municipal or industrial supply bills, borewell meter readings, tanker invoices in kL, and harvested rainwater if metered.
- Discharge: effluent meter readings, CETP invoices, and ETP outlet logs.
- Consumption: the difference, usually water lost in evaporation, product and cooling towers.
Mistakes to avoid
- Reporting bills in rupees instead of kL.
- Counting recycled ETP water as new withdrawal; it is reuse, not a new source.
- Leaving out tanker water because it arrives without a meter. The invoice quantity is the record.
Why both matter
Withdrawal shows pressure on local sources. Consumption shows how much water the site removes from the area for good, which is what water-stressed regions care about.
Worked example
- Municipal supply 6,000 kL + borewell 3,000 kL + tanker 1,000 kL = withdrawal 10,000 kL.
- Discharge to CETP 6,500 kL.
- Consumption = 10,000 kL minus 6,500 kL = 3,500 kL.
Illustrative figures.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads kWh, litres and kg from electricity bills and fuel invoices into a dated record per site, with the factor and source on every line, and prepares BRSR drafts from that data. Reports are self-declared drafts.
Sources: GRI Standards, GRI 303 Water and Effluents (globalreporting.org), SEBI, BRSR and BRSR Core circulars (sebi.gov.in)
Last reviewed 2026-10-23.