The AGS Globe: The Cloud is Drying our Rivers: Water Usage of AI Data Centers
The American Geographical Society's Weekly Newsletter for July 29, 2025
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The Cloud is Drying our Rivers: Water Usage of AI Data Centers
Read more: The Cloud is Drying our Rivers: Water Usage of AI Data Centers | EthicalGEO
Cloud computing is drying out our rivers, lakes, and oceans. The average 100 megawatt data center consumes about 2 million liters of water a day, equivalent to the water consumption of 6,500 American households. Globally, data centers consume around 560 billion liters of water annually, or the equivalent of 224,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Not only do they consume massive amounts of water, but two-thirds of new data centers built or in development globally since 2022 are located in places already plagued by water stress. Even before the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, communities complained about data centers guzzling millions of gallons of water from cities without much to spare (Bass et al., 2025).
Data centers are physical spaces that house computing equipment, like servers, storage systems, and network equipment. These servers store everything from emails to google searches. The so-called “cloud” is just a collection of data centers (Cisco, n.d.).
To power these data centers, water is used in two ways:
indirectly, to generate the electricity to operate data centers
directly, to cool down servers and other equipment
Computer equipment needs to stay cool to function properly. Continued exposure to high temperatures can cause sometimes irreversible loss of functionality. High temperatures can also cause electrical fires.
The most common cooling method is evaporative cooling (also known as swamp cooling), where warm air is drawn through wet pads. Data centers evaporate 80% of the water drawn and discharge 20% to wastewater treatment. Residential evaporative cooling, on the other hand, evaporates 10% of the water drawn, discharging the other 90%. The majority of AI specialised data centers use evaporation-based cooling 24/7 or, at minimum, during hot days. Of course, data centers in hot regions require more cooling (Ahmad, 2024).
As for indirect water consumption, nearly half of US data centers are fully or partially powered by water-hungry power plants in water-stressed regions. The International Energy Association estimates that 60% of data center water consumption is from indirect use. Traditionally, water has been cheaper and more abundant than energy and land, leading businesses to consider water availability as more of an afterthought (Bass et al., 2025).
On direct water consumption alone, data centers rank in the top 10 highest water-consuming American industrial or commercial industries. Yet, a 2021 survey found that only 51% of data center operators track their water usage. Out of those who do monitor their usage, monitoring is mainly at individual data centers, not across facilities. Only 10% of data center operators track water use across all their facilities (Ahmad, 2024).
Furthermore, big tech companies often rent a large portion of their data center capacity from third-party data center operators (or “colocation” data centers). Large tech companies (or “hyperscalers”) represented 37% of worldwide data center capacity in 2022, with half of that (18.5% of worldwide data center capacity) being third-party contracts (O’Brien, 2024). Through third-party operators, companies can claim smaller footprints—reduced emissions, water use, and climate toll.
Everything we do on the internet travels through data centers. Every search we make and every email we send requires water. This goes double if AI is involved. Without urgent action, clear regulation, and genuine accountability, we will never know how much water is being used until we feel its effects.
References
Ahmad, R. (2024, March 4). Engineers often need a lot of water to keep data centers cool. American Society of Civil Engineers.
Barrat, L. & Gambarini, C. (2025, April 9). Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas. The Guardian.
Bass, D., Ma, M., & Nicoletti, L. (2025, May 8). AI is Draining Water from Areas that Need it Most. Bloomberg.
Cisco. (n.d.). What Is a Data Center?
O’Brien, I. (2024, September 15). Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims. Can it keep up the ruse? The Guardian.
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