What does CDP Water Security ask a textile or leather exporter to report?

CDP Water Security asks for total water withdrawal, discharge and consumption in megalitres, withdrawal split by source, discharge split by destination and treatment, how much you draw from water-stressed areas, and your water risks, targets and pollutant controls. For a dyeing unit or tannery, effluent quality is central.

The volume figures and how they fit together

• Withdrawal: all water brought in, split by source: fresh surface water (CDP counts harvested rainwater here), groundwater (renewable and non-renewable), third-party supply such as municipal or tanker water, and brackish water or seawater.
• Discharge: all water sent out, split by destination (surface water, groundwater, third party such as a CETP or sewer) and by treatment level.
• Consumption: withdrawal minus discharge. It is the water evaporated, built into product or held in sludge.
• Report in megalitres. One megalitre is 1,000 kilolitres, or 1,000 cubic metres.

Water stress and risk questions

CDP asks what share of your withdrawal comes from areas with water stress, and which tool you used to decide. WRI Aqueduct is the common choice: enter each plant's coordinates and record the baseline water stress class. Many textile and leather clusters in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab sit in high-stress basins, so expect this to apply.

You then describe risks to operations, such as falling groundwater, tanker dependence in summer, or tighter discharge rules, with the likely financial effect and what you are doing about them.

Effluent questions a dyeing unit or tannery should prepare for

• Which pollutants you control and how, for example COD, BOD, total dissolved solids, colour, and chromium for tanneries.
• The standard you meet: the CPCB and State Pollution Control Board discharge standards for your sector, and zero liquid discharge conditions where your consent requires them.
• Whether effluent goes to your own ETP or a common CETP, with monitoring records.
• Any buyer wastewater programme you follow, alongside the legal standard.

Records that back each answer

1. Flow meter readings at borewells, municipal connections and tanker receipts for withdrawal.
2. ETP inlet and outlet meters, CETP bills and treated water reuse logs for discharge.
3. Consent to Operate and the CGWA or state groundwater permission for limits and conditions.
4. Laboratory reports on effluent quality, on the frequency your consent sets.

Worked example: a dyeing unit's water balance (hypothetical figures)

• Borewell withdrawal: 95,000 kL = 95 ML
• Tanker water: 25,000 kL = 25 ML
• Total withdrawal: 95 + 25 = 120 ML
• Treated effluent sent to CETP: 90,000 kL = 90 ML
• Consumption: 120 minus 90 = 30 ML
• Water recycled inside the plant through the ETP is reported as reuse, not as extra withdrawal

All volumes are hypothetical. A zero liquid discharge unit reports discharge near zero, so its consumption is close to its withdrawal.

What Senseible does here

Senseible's document reader is built for invoices, energy bills, fuel slips and freight records, so it does not produce the withdrawal, discharge and consumption balance this module asks for. It can supply the energy and Scope 1 and 2 figures that the climate part of a CDP response asks for.

• Water and carbon in textiles and leather
• A customer sent a CDP request: what to do
• Methane from ETP wastewater

Sources: CDP corporate questionnaire, water security module (cdp.net), CPCB discharge standards for textile and tannery industries (cpcb.nic.in)

Last reviewed 2026-10-16. CDP revises its water security questions each cycle; check the current module before filling it.