Sugar production from cane can use large quantities of water. At the San Francisco Ameca plant in the State of Jalisco, Mexico, as many as 111 cubic metres of water were used for every ton of sugar produced. After an intensive review - under the CLEANSUGERTEC programme run by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) - action was taken to recycle water and minimize waste. The net effect was to reduce water consumption to only 5 cubic metres per ton of sugar, a reduction of over 93 per cent. Further, the pollution entering the water was cut by 20 per cent. This had a significant impact, considering that during the annual harvest season, the plant processes 4,800 tons of sugarcane and produces about 500 tons of standard sugar each day. In between the harvests, a series of technical improvements was made, including: segregating sewage from process waste-water; reducing discharges of oil or grease into drains; and installing cooling ponds to hold water and make it available for recycling.