Can Water Suppliers Meet The Needs Of AI Data Centres?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing rapidly in its prominence and importance, but AI data centres are very intensive water users. Water companies and the infrastructure that they rely on face a major challenge to meet the growing needs of these tech firms and their facilities.

The main centre of AI tech is Silicon Valley in California, where giant companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon have established large AI data centres. However, this is also in a part of the US where meeting water supply challenges is increasingly difficult.

A report in the Wall Street Journal has highlighted the issue that the industry faces. It noted that while these tech giants have spent as much as $1 trillion on AI data centres, the amount of water they use is enormous, often exceeding the levels they report.

The report notes that while these companies do produce reports on the water used at their data centres, there is a further issue. Because they use so much power, there is a further consideration: the water use required by power stations that generate this energy.

Of the main tech firms, only META publishes details of this secondary factor, providing a more realistic picture of the total water requirements needed to power a data centre.

Why Does High Water Use In Data Centres Pose A Threat To Water Supplies?

The issue in the United States may be a pressing concern because several states, including California, face water shortages as long dry spells in a changing climate reduce water supplies.

As a result, the huge Lake Mead reservoir has dropped to levels that require usage restrictions in California and other western states such as Arizona and Nevada. To make matters worse for California, its vital groundwater reserves are diminishing.

A key question companies operating in the UK may ask is whether their data centres face similar pressures here. And, just as importantly, can business water suppliers and the overall water infrastructure meet the challenge?

This is crucial for two reasons. Firstly, to make sure your data centre keeps working. Secondly, the last thing your business wants is a poor environmental reputation.

The Global Water Monitor 2025 Report highlighted areas around the world where water stress is a growing issue. It noted:

• Around the world, the number of record dry months had risen by 9.7 per cent in a decade
• Lake and reservoir volumes were at record lows in North America and Central Asia, whereas they were at record highs in other parts of Asia as well as in Africa.
• Terrestrial water storage was in long-term decline, with southern Europe among areas with record lows, although, once again, parts of Africa were at record highs.

It is certainly true that there are many parts of the world facing worse water stress than the UK, not least southern Europe, while there are some places that are getting wetter overall rather than drier as the climate changes.

Can The UK Meet The Extra Water Challenge Posed By Data Centres?

Nonetheless, the UK is facing growing water challenges. Indeed, it is on this basis that the government has made it a priority to develop nine new reservoirs in the southern half of England to meet the twin challenges of climate change and population growth.

The concern businesses may have is whether even this step will adequately deal with the growing demand that is driven by more than just the size of the population.

Last year, a BBC report revealed that discussions with water industry insiders had raised concerns about just what strains the government’s ambitions to become a leader in AI could place on water resources, especially in the increasingly dry south.

Texas-based expert Dr Venkatesh Uddamen told the broadcaster that AI data centres can use between 11 million and 19 million litres of water a day.

Among the concerned firms the BBC spoke to was Thames Water, which faces the prospect of supplying data centres in a proposed AI growth zone in Oxfordshire, near a planned new reservoir close to Abingdon, one of the nine priority reservoirs.

These issues prompted the Royal Academy of Engineering to publish a report calling for AI facilities to face mandatory reporting of water use, as well as other statistics relating to energy consumption, carbon emissions and electronic waste.

One of the report’s authors, Tom Rodden, commented that “We face a real risk that our development, deployment and use of AI could do irreparable damage to the environment.”

How Could Data Centres Use Water More Efficiently?

Further subsequent concerns have been expressed by two members of the government’s Digital Sustainability Alliance, Alexandra Kis and Avinash Lunj.

Writing in a personal capacity last September, they predicted that the global water use of AI firms is set to rise from 1.1 billion to 6.6 billion cubic metres by 2027.

The reasons for heavy water use are no mystery:

• For use in cooling computers in data centres
• During electricity generation
• The manufacturing process for hardware

The further problem comes from the fact that while the water arrives fresh and clean (since any dirt or grit would wreck equipment), once it has been used, it has picked up enough dirt and chemicals to ensure it cannot be reused.

Therefore, the water, once used in cooling, goes straight into the waste system.

However, the authors note, there may be some practical solutions:

• The water can be treated to high environmental standards and released back into local water bodies
• It could be used as ‘grey water’ for flushing toilets
• New technologies such as liquid immersion cooling and free cooling can “help to alleviate the need for fresh water”.

Can Your Water Supplier Help Your Data Centre Use Water More Efficiently?

These alternatives have also been noted by publications such as Tech Journal, which wrote last month that methods such as chip-to-chip and immersion cooling are “already in use”.

It also suggested that data centres could be located in cooler climates, which might sound like a good reason to put them in Scotland, although a BBC report last year revealed that the 16 data centres already based there used 13.5 million litres a year.

However, better recycling is certainly a solution that water companies can play a role in and it may be that the most reliable suppliers will increasingly invest in this to ensure that water demand is met.

What this suggests is that the most enlightened water suppliers will not simply pump huge quantities of water through the mains to help data centres keep cool, but will play a role in engineering solutions to use water more effectively.

In doing so, they could meet your business needs without the reservoirs running dry.