The three Swedish clothing retailers and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) in collaboration with suppliers in Delhi and Jaipur under the Sustainable Water Resources Management (SWAR) project has turned successful to reduce its water consumption considerably and also made reserves on electricity, fuel and chemical usage.

According to the suppliers of this project, Mukesh Tomar of Maya Exports, SWAR has been much more effective than other resource management projects that we have undertaken in that it has gone beyond giving paper reports and has actually helped implement projects.

In Delhi National Capital Region, the Indian textile suppliers and sub-suppliers are said to have implemented 85 recommendations suggested by SWAR, including applying practices to ensure right-first-time chemical dyeing, rainwater harvesting, effective waste water treatment and reuse, as well as efficient boiler heating cycles, resulting in a 765 per cent return on investment in one year.

This sustainable water initiative from Swedish fashion brands Indiska, KappAhl and Lindex, led by a Scandinavian Institute, and has reportedly reduced annual total water consumption by 84.5 million litres at textile suppliers in India.

In September last year Swedish fashion retail companies Indiska, KappAhl and Lindex announced they were to expand their cooperation with the Stockholm International Water Institute, aiming to increase sustainability in water management practices at their Indian suppliers.

The SWAR project was advancing since February 2013 and it has reportedly reduced total water consumption by 6.6 per cent (84.5 million litres), electricity use by 3.4 per cent, fuel by 4 per cent and chemical usage by 14 per cent at supplier and sub-supplier levels in Delhi, which the initiative claims has resulted in an annual 1.7 per cent saving in production costs for all units.