BURQA Watershed Initiative — Heineken Ethiopia's Bedele & Harar Water-Balancing Programme

Heineken's two Ethiopian breweries, in Bedele (Oromia) and Harar, draw from water-stressed catchments. Since acquiring Bedele Brewery in 2011, the company has invested in in-plant water efficiency, alongside a catchment-scale watershed restoration partnership — BURQA (named for the Oromo word for 'spring') — with World Vision Ethiopia and the Dutch water consultancy Acacia Water.

Reduce brewery operational water consumption and restore degraded land in the Dabena catchment around Bedele and the Hakim Gara catchment around Harar, with a stated aim of strengthening water security for more than 55,000 households across both catchments.

BURQA combines soil and water conservation, forest and landscape restoration, and community engagement in the Dabena and Hakim Gara catchments. In parallel, the breweries pursued in-plant efficiency measures, and Acacia Water was commissioned to produce an independent biophysical, socio-economic and governance baseline ahead of a planned Phase II.

In-plant efficiency measures nearly halved Heineken Ethiopia's water-use ratio, to 5.1 hl of water per hl of beer by 2014, with a further roughly 230,000 m3 reduction in operational water consumption reported over the following five years. The programme's first phase (2020-2023), budgeted at 50 million Ethiopian Birr, is reported to have reached roughly 30,000 people directly, with 2.5 million trees planted under the wider initiative. Acacia Water's July 2024 baseline records modelled water-balance ratios of 190% for Harar-Hakim Gara and 192% for Bedele-Dabena, meaning restoration activities are estimated to replenish substantially more water than the two breweries withdraw.

As with most corporate 'water balance' claims, these ratios are modelled estimates from a company-commissioned assessment rather than independently audited hydrological measurements, and BURQA's biodiversity outcomes are not separately quantified in available reporting.