Page 63 - Annual Report 2020

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Water During FY2020, our internal focus was on strengthening our
Access to safe, clean water is a basic human right, central to processes for water risk management, accountabilities and data.
livelihoods and essential to maintaining healthy ecosystems. We progressed the implementation of our Group-wide standards
Water is also integral to what we do and BHP cannot operate for water management, water data and drinking water, with Strategic Report
without it. We adopted a Water Stewardship Strategy in FY2017 operated assets assessing compliance with these standards
to improve our management of water, increase transparency and and, where necessary, developing an action plan to achieve full
contribute to the resolution of shared water challenges. In FY2019, compliance. We progressed actions to further identify and assess
we developed our Water Stewardship Position Statement which water interactions and operational water-related risks, including
is available at bhp.com/environment/water. catchment-level risks. These activities have resulted in an improved
understanding of our water-related risks.
Our vision is for a water secure world by CY2030, consistent with
the UNSDGs and our previously communicated CY2030 public We made progress on our public target for water. In FY2017,
goal for water. Communities, governments, business and civil we announced a five-year water target of reducing FY2022
(2)
(1)
society must work together to build a world where terrestrial and freshwater withdrawal by 15 per cent from FY2017 levels across Governance at BHP
marine water resources are conserved and resilient, and continue our operated assets. Reducing the amount of fresh water we use is
to support healthy communities and ecosystems, maintain cultural important, as this is generally the water resource that communities
and spiritual values and sustain economic growth. in which we operate and the environment most rely on.
We developed this target based on each operated asset’s
We interact with water in a number of ways, including: extracting it circumstances, the potential to reduce freshwater use and the
for ore processing, cooling, dust suppression and processing mine asset’s level of contribution to BHP’s water target. In FY2020,
tailings; managing it to access ore through dewatering, as part of freshwater withdrawal decreased 18 per cent (126,997 megalitres/
the oil recovery process and at our closed operations; providing annum) compared to FY2019 (155,570 megalitres/annum).
drinking water and sanitation facilities; ecosystem irrigation; The FY2020 result also represents a 19 per cent reduction on
discharging it back to the receiving environment; interacting with the adjusted FY2017 baseline, exceeding our 15 per cent reduction
marine water resources through our port facilities and offshore target. Progress on the target is primarily due to ongoing reduction Remuneration Report
Petroleum facilities; and utilising marine water for desalination. over a number of years, and from December 2019 the cessation
We recognise our responsibility to effectively manage our of groundwater withdrawal for operational supply purposes from
interactions and minimise impacts on water resources. Effective the Andean aquifers at Escondida. Other reductions in FY2020
water stewardship must begin within our operations. From there, include decreased surface water withdrawal at Queensland Coal,
we can more credibly collaborate with others toward solutions increased sourcing of desalinated water and increased recovery
to shared water challenges. Water challenges that we face may of low-quality water from water storage facilities at our operated
include water scarcity or high variability in water supply due to assets. We remain on track to sustain reductions to meet the
climatic conditions or collective use or impacts within a catchment. 15 per cent reduction target in FY2022.
These challenges need to be managed appropriately to minimise Our global freshwater withdrawals from FY2017 to FY2020
(1)
impacts to the environment, communities and BHP’s ongoing are shown in the following figure. Directors’ Report
viability. We identify and assess opportunities to reduce stress
on high-risk water resources and implement actions where
appropriate. For example: Performance against freshwater

• Queensland Coal is located in a region with highly variable withdrawal reduction target
rainfall. In any given year, we may need to manage an excess of Megalitres
water or an insufficient water supply for operational needs, which 200,000
may influence our projected production or costs. In FY2020, a
number of intense rainfall events in the location of Queensland 150,000
Coal resulted in capture of water volumes above that needed for
operations. This excess water is managed to minimise impacts
to the environment and community while maintaining operational 100,000 Financial Statements
continuity, with a number of options available including: storage
for future use; transfer to other sites that require water; or
discharge in line with legal requirements. 50,000
• Escondida mine extracted groundwater from the Andean aquifers
in Chile, where freshwater resources are scarce. In December
2019, we ceased extraction of groundwater for operational 0
purposes (other than small quantities of groundwater extracted FY2017 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
for pit dewatering to allow safe mining) 10 years earlier than
originally scheduled. ● Freshwater withdrawal
• WAIO operations commonly mine ore that is below the natural – FY2022 15% reduction target
water table and must extract water (an activity known as Additional information
‘dewatering’) to mine safely. The extracted water is used All water performance data presented in this Report are from
to meet the mine’s water use requirements, but at most sites operated assets during FY2020. For a year-on-year comparison
the dewatering volumes exceed use requirements. This surplus of data related to operated assets and further analysis of our
water is generally fresh to brackish in quality and is a recognised water data and performance, refer to section 6.6.5.
environmental, social and economic resource. In recent years,
WAIO has developed large water infrastructure schemes to return
most of this surplus water to groundwater systems. In line with
increasing surplus water, WAIO has updated its long-term water
strategy to optimise operational considerations as well as social
value and environmental outcomes. Shareholder information

(1) Where ‘withdrawal’ is defined as water withdrawn and intended for use (in accordance with ‘A Practical Guide to Consistent Water Reporting’, ICMM (2017)). ‘Fresh
water’ is defined as waters other than seawater, wastewater from third parties and hypersaline groundwater. Freshwater withdrawal also excludes entrained water that
would not be available for other uses. These exclusions have been made to align with the target’s intent to reduce the use of freshwater sources of potential value to
other users or the environment.
(2) The FY2017 baseline data has been adjusted to account for: the materiality of the strike affecting water withdrawals at Escondida in FY2017 and improvements to water
balance methodologies at WAIO and Queensland Coal and exclusion of hypersaline, wastewater, entrainment, supplies from desalination and Discontinued operations
(Onshore US assets) in FY2019 and FY2020.

BHP Annual Report 2020 61