Integrated Water Management
Our priority is to ensure that there is no pressure on water resources, nor is there competition for them with communities in the areas of influence of our projects.
For us, Integrated Water Management is the set of activities that we carry out to make sustainable use of water resources and contribute to its protection in our operations and in the environment.
We know that water is a shared resource and that its scarcity or low quality has the potential to impact our stakeholders. On the other hand, its efficient and responsible management can leverage development and well being in the territories we operate in.
Policies and Commitments
We are committed to innovation and implementing practices that contribute to the rational and efficient use of the resource, its reuse, and the proper management of the effluents we generate.
2022
We laid the foundations of a Climate Change Adaptation Plan to identify the risks associated with water resources, which will allow us to determine mitigation and adaptation initiatives.
2025
We are committed to eliminating any surface source water withdrawals in all our permanent operations (fields under development) as well as continuing to maintain zero (0) direct discharges into surface water sources.
Our Approach and Our Management
We focus efforts on developing an efficient operation, to reduce conflicts over the use of the resource in the areas we operate in and prevent environmental impacts associated with water through:
- The improvement of operational efficiency in water management by implementing the Integral Water Management Program from the EMS.
- The protection of watersheds. We maintain our commitment of zero (0) discharges into bodies of surface water in any activity that we carry out, and by 2025 we aim to have zero (0) surface water withdrawals in development- stage operations.
- Planning at our installations.
Withdrawal and Consumption
Our operations withdraw water only from authorized sources.
In 2022 water withdrawal in Colombia was 94.3 % of the Company’s total, Ecuador accounted for 3.5 %, Argentina 0.7 %, and Chile 1.6 %. Water distribution by source was the following:
- 85.2 % underground sources.
- 7.3 % lateral borrow areas.
- 6 % purchased from third parties.
- 0.2 % rainwater.
- 1.3 % surface wate.
Tracking and Monitoring
Our water resource management initiatives are
defined according to the Company’s operational plans, objectives and goals, and are evaluated annually by the Environmental Area.
To evaluate
We use tools from the Integrated Water Management Program that focus on loss control, measuring our withdrawals, and awareness and innovation in water-related processes.
To monitor
Colombia we use the AMATIA platform, through which we monitor the following indicators:
- Variation of water consumption per unit of production.
- Reduction/elimination of withdrawals from surface sources.
- The percentage of water withdrawals and production water that is reused.
- Wastewater disposal volumes and methods.
GOALS
Short Term
0-3 years
- Define the corporate water footprint under a recognized standard.
- Build the Integrated Water Management Strategic Plan, which includes identifying and evaluating potential risks associated with water.
- Have zero (0) water withdrawals from surface sources in operations under development by 2025.
Medium And Long Term
3 years and more
- Medium and long-term goals shall be defined once the Integrated Water Management Strategic Plan is in place.