The rapid expansion of AI data centers is sparking concerns about their massive water use and impact on local communities, particularly in drought-prone regions. Tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are building data centers in water-stressed areas, with over two-thirds of new data centers constructed since 2022 located in such regions.
Data centers rely heavily on evaporative cooling, which consumes millions of liters of water daily to prevent servers from overheating. A single 100-megawatt data center can use up to 2 million liters of water per day, equivalent to the daily water use of 6,500 households. Globally, data centers already use around 560 billion liters of water annually, and this number could double by 2030.
The water usage of data centers is affecting local communities and ecosystems, reducing access to clean water for essential services. Farmers and environmental activists are protesting water-guzzling tech projects, citing concerns about water diversion and environmental impact. In Spain, Amazon's new data centers are licensed to use 755,720 cubic meters of water annually, enough to irrigate over 570 acres of farmland.
To mitigate these concerns, companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have pledged to be "water positive" by 2030, returning more water to the environment than they consume. Microsoft is developing closed-loop cooling systems to avoid evaporation, while air-cooled data centers and renewable energy sources are being explored as potential solutions. Improving energy efficiency within data centers can also reduce water consumption, with some companies optimizing servers and AI models to require less computational power.
