Our priorities in action

At Nile Breweries in Uganda, I’m proud that we have reduced our water consumption from eight hectolitres of water per hectolitre of beer produced in 2006 to less than five hectolitres today. This has been achieved through a number of capital projects such as the recovery of filter-backwash water for floor washing in non-production areas, machine cooling water recovery and reuse and improved metering.

We have also worked hard to improve employee awareness of saving water.  Each week, every department in the brewery reports their water usage to ensure performance matches our targets.

Along with reducing the amount of water we use, we now return cleaner water to the Nile, on the banks of which our brewery sits. This year, we commissioned a new waste water treatment plant to process all the liquid waste from the brewery and the malting plant, and return it to the river cleaner than when it was extracted.

The commissioning of Nile Breweries' new waste water treatment plant

The process involves removing solids from the waste stream, restoring the pH balance of the water, converting organic material into biogas and sludge, disinfecting the waste water and then returning it to the river. What’s more, we are able to use the biogas as fuel to power our brewery and the sludge can be used by local farmers as a fertiliser.

Fred Balikagira – Plant Manager, Nile Breweries

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