© Hydro 2024
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Water
Resources
1. Introduction
2. Business
3. Performance
4. Governance
5. Sustainability
6. Financials
7. Appendices
Content
Water resources
Why it matters
Hydro depends on the supply of water as an ecosystem service and
withdraws large volumes of water for beneficiation and pumping at its
Paragominas mining operations, steam-generation in the Bayer
process at the Alunorte alumina refinery, and for cooling in Hydro’s
primary aluminium, downstream, and recycling processes. There is
also a significant influence from Hydro’s hydropower operations on
the water catchments where they are located.
Hydro follows standards for measuring and reporting its water
interaction and the quality of its water discharges, to minimize the
potential for water related impacts on nature and local communities.
The main water related risks for Hydro are physical risks, such as
changes in the availability and quality of freshwater, and natural
hazards like flooding. Climate change can exacerbate the scale and
frequency of these risks further. Climate change can result in more
frequent events of heavy rainfall, exposing Hydro to water related
risks like flooding and landslides. Seasonal drought risks can cause
disruptions in the availability of water for electricity generation,
cooling, operations or shipping routes, infrastructure, and logistics
services in Hydro’s value chain.
Our approach
Hydro’s Global Procedure for Water Stewardship requires that all
operational sites, that are fully owned or operated by Hydro, evaluate
water related risks and opportunities at a catchment scale and
develop management plans and context-relevant targets to address
any material risks identified. Operational sites must also maintain a
sufficiently detailed water balance account to reflect the site’s water
risk exposure and comply with the International Council on Mining &
Metals’ (ICMM’s) requirements for water reporting. Furthermore, it
must also manage the quality of water discharges and run-off to fulfil
legal permit limits and mitigate potential negative impacts to the
environment and harm to the health and livelihoods of affected
communities, within the operation’s area of influence.
Aluminium value chain
Hydro uses the WRI Aqueduct tool to analyze Hydro’s freshwater
footprint in water stressed areas, defined as locations with high or
extremely high baseline water stress. The majority of Hydro’s water
withdrawal occurs in fjords and rivers in Norway, from abundant
water resources that are not materially impacted by Hydro’s
operations. Approximately 1 percent of Hydro’s freshwater
withdrawals are related to operational assets located in water
stressed areas, so over exploitation of natural water resource
availability is not considered material for Hydro today. With future
climate change scenarios, location specific changes to the availability
of water resources may occur. Such risks were evaluated in the
physical climate risk assessment that was updated in 2023,
described in the climate change chapter.
Regarding water related risks, priority is given to managing the
quality of discharges to the external environment and ensuring that
Hydro operates within the relevant permit limits and regulatory
frameworks. In addition, and due to seasonal heavy rainfall in
Northern Brazil, managing flood risk is also a priority for both the
mining operation and alumina refinery.
Hydropower
Hydro’s hydropower operations can affect water resources in the
catchment area of the hydropower plants. This includes both positive
impacts on flood control and water flow, and the potential negative
impacts on water based ecosystems in the catchment areas that are
described in the biodiversity and ecosystems chapter. Flood control
is an important positive impact of the regulation of water bodies for
hydropower production. Hydro monitors and simulates water levels
and adapts the production, which helps mitigating consequences of
extreme weather events, particularly flooding.
The water regulation in Norway is based on the EU Water
Framework Directive, which aims for “good ecological status or
potential” for all water resources within 2027. This is followed up by
the authorities and formalized in regional water management plans
(WMP). The WMPs sets targets for water bodies and establishes
required mitigating actions for water bodies with poor status. It is the
main contributing activity/actor that has the responsibility to
implement improvement activities. The WMPs are the main tool for
authorities to follow-up improvements in Norwegian water bodies,
and are established with inputs from different stakeholders, including
hydropower producers. New WMPs (2022-2027) were approved by
the Norwegian Government in October 2022. The WMPs will be an
important basis for authorities’ follow-up of the concessionaires in the
future.
Actions and resources related to water resources
Hydro undertakes a number of mandatory and voluntary actions to
reduce risks related to water resources, depending on the activity
and geographic location. For actions related to emissions to water,
refer to the Pollution chapter.
Aluminium value chain
Around 75 percent of Hydro’s total water withdrawal occurs in
Norway from fjords (sea water) and rivers (fresh water) that supply
these fjords. These water sources are vast and are not significantly
affected by Hydro’s operations. All seawater withdrawal in Norway is
used in gas treatment centers, enabling the primary production
smelters to reduce dust, SO
2
and fluoride emissions to air.
To mitigate risks related to water availability, Hydro has implemented
actions to reduce operational dependency on surface water
withdrawals at our mining and refining operations in Brazil, by
increasing rainwater capture and storage and reuse of process
water, and water use efficiency programs in our Extrusion business
to reduce overall water withdrawal intensity.
In 2023, 28 percent of Hydro’s surface water withdrawals was
rainwater, primarily captured at Alunorte and Paragominas.
Approximately 74 percent of Paragominas’ water demand was met
by recovery of water from the beneficiation process, and 9 percent
34
65.4 million m
3
Number of sites in water stressed
areas
Performance
1.4 million m
3
Freshwater withdrawals in water
stressed areas
Water recycled or reused