Most people don’t realize it, but every scroll, search, and stream quietly consumes something far more limited than bandwidth: fresh water. One Google search uses about half a milliliter. ChatGPT, when prompted repeatedly, can drain as much as 500 milliliters. Multiply that across billions of daily interactions—and throw in streaming, cloud storage, and video calls—and the numbers become staggering. Today, data centers are using more water each year than many mid-sized cities.
These sprawling buildings, packed with servers running around the clock, generate massive heat. To keep them from overheating, companies rely on water-cooled systems. A single 1-megawatt data center can use more than 25 million liters annually—roughly what 300,000 people might consume in a day. Hyperscale sites run by firms like Google and Microsoft push those totals even higher. In many cases, the water evaporates and never returns to the system.
The surge in AI development is ramping up demand for computational resources, which in turn generates significant heat. To keep these systems running, cooling is essential—and that means massive water consumption. Current estimates suggest that by 2027, AI infrastructure could be pulling as much as 1.7 trillion gallons of water each year. That’s not exactly a drop in the bucket.
On a global scale, communities like those in Uruguay, the Netherlands, and Chile are already pushing back. They’ve organized protests, raising concerns that tech facilities are depleting local water supplies. This isn’t just some isolated issue; it’s shaping up as a bigger conflict between the relentless growth of digital infrastructure and the practical needs of people living nearby.
Still, transparency remains an issue. Most companies don’t report how much water their data centers use. And when they do, standard metrics like Water Usage Effectiveness often ignore the hidden water used to generate electricity in the first place.
Tech giants have pledged to go “water positive” by 2030. Some fund water restoration projects, while others experiment with more efficient cooling methods. However, real solutions—not just promises—will matter. As the climate crisis deepens, the industry must choose: continue expanding without accountability or lead the way in preserving what’s quickly becoming the world’s most fragile resource.
