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Water is the source of all life on earth. That once inexhaustible
source is threatening to dry up and clean drinking water is
becoming a scarce resource because of pollution and growing
demand. Concern for water is a matter for everyone and there
fore for Heineken as well. Heineken sees it as its duty to make
economical use of water and to clean its waste water, also in
locations where purification is not mandatory by law.
This decision has meant that on the sites of the African breweries
37 wastewater treatment plants will become operational within
the next six years.
the early 1980s and it was then found that the water was of a
first-rate quality. One of the things I did now was to investigate
the speed at which the water reservoir is filled up again after you
pump up water. Those findings are also very positive," says
Mr Bohlmeijer.
So the brewery does not need to worry about the availability of
sufficient quantities of clean water. The same also applies to the
present brewery in Enugu. Ample supplies of clean water of
excellent quality are available. In the past the abundance of those
supplies (and their extremely low cost) meant that no-one cared
whether they used a litre more water than was really necessary.
According to head brewer Kenneth Anisiobi, as many as twenty
litres of water were formerly used in the production of each litre
of beer. "The Heineken water policy has rapidly helped to make us
aware of that wastage. We have put in a tremendous effort to cut
down our water consumption drastically, from 20 litres to 7 litres,
in a short space of time. In the past people did not realise that using
An important element in the ultimate decision to build a brewery
is the quality and quantity of the available water. At the beginning
of 2001 Ron Bohlmeijer, geo-hydrological consultant of Heineken
Technical Services, carried out the final drillings. The wells, at a
depth of 160 - 170 metres, proved to contain sufficient quantities
of water of an excellent quality. "Wells had already been sunk in
